Guess this marks over 63 years history of both the Fokker Friendship and F50 Prop-Jet operations in Australia.
The Fokker F27 Friendship series of twin-engined turboprop aircraft were amongst the most successful post-war western short-haul airliners.
While the HP Herald with only 50 orders had failed to make much headway against the Friendship, the sturdy Hawker Siddeley 748 – which first flew on June 24, 1960 – made substantial inroads into the F.27’s market; and, had it been available earlier, might have had even more success.
Fokker, along with the Dutch government, had the wisdom to enter the Dakota replacement market first and use Dart turboprops on the F27 – a major reason why it was so successful.
The Friendship quickly became popular with airline customers in Australia.
The Dutch firm Fokker had been one of the pioneers of airliner development in the 1920s with the F.VII-3m series, the most famous of which was Kingsford Smith's 'Southern Cross'.
The Production prototype flew in 1957 and was fitted with the Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop engine.
Extensive use was made of British accessories and structural processes, with Rolls-Royce Dart engines, Rotol propellers, Dowty landing gear, Dunlop tyres, Maxaret brakes, Smiths instruments, Napier de-icing, Graviner fire protection and Rumbold seats.
The first Australian order for six F27 aircraft was placed by the Commonwealth on behalf of Trans-Australia Airlines (TAA) in 1956 with deliveries to begin in 1959.
Butler Air Transport, Guinea Airways Air New South Wales Air Queensland East-West MMA MacRobertson-Miller Airlines and Ansett-ANA and -NSW all followed quickly with orders or leases mostly to replace Douglas DC-3 aircraft on country services.
The later F27-500F was an extended version of the 500 series, with 52 seats, developed specifically for Australia, which had smaller front and rear doors.
The first Friendship to arrive in Australia was TAA's VH-TFB 'Abel Tasman' in April 1959.
Sadly, this aircraft crashed in to the sea on approach to Mackay airport in Queensland in June 1960 killing all 29 people on board.
The accident investigation revealed the need for a flight recorder which was already being developed in Australia by Dr David Warren of ARL.
Flight recorders became mandatory for all larger Australian passenger aircraft in 1965, and Australia was the first country to make recorders mandatory.
The F27 aircraft was used extensively on regional routes by TAA, Ansett and some of the larger regional airlines, remaining in use well into the 1980s on some rural Australia routes, where Friendships had continued to be the most widely used airliner for country services around Australia, until when they were mostly replaced with other types including
the new Fokker F50, an updated stretched Friendship with uprated PWC engines, a new hydraulic system, twin wheel nose gear, modern avionics with a glass cockpit, and airstairs.
The last F27 delivered new to Australia was VH-EWZ in AUG 1984 for East West Airlines named City of Port Macquarie.
Fokker, building on success, was naturally very keen to sell the F50 as a replacement for F27s and the first customers were loyal F27 operators, including Ansett who signed the first order for 10 then 15 F50s in February 1985 and then at the 1985 Paris Air Show Ansett made the order up to 22 to include examples for AWAS Ansett Worldwide Aviation Leasing.
Only 10 though were delivered to the airline, with the rest NTU.
F50's went on to fly with ASW Skywest and Flight West Airlines, Virgin Australia Regional Airlines, and finally Alliance.
The Fokker F28 Fellowship is yet another chapter in Australia's long aviation history.