All of which got me thinking;
I had a very good friend called Eric Skemp. Sadly, Eric is no longer with us but I met him through 53 Sqn. (Eric flew Liberators on 53). After the war, he joined Scottish Airlines, ostensibly to fly their Liberators but he also flew the Fokker F XXII. Eric had two books published at his own expense before he died and I am honoured to have a copy of both books (the production run was only 30 copies each).
Here is what Eric had to say about the F XXII:
"And three days later, I had my first taste of the Fokker F-22 - again with Cormack - on a short 'pleasure flight.'
The F-22 was a remarkable beast. A beautifully streamlined airship-like fuselage, covered in silver fabric, surmounted by a ninety nine foot wooden wing and supported on a fixed (tailwheel) undercarriage, was fitted with seats for twenty-two passengers in facing pairs. Long rectangular windows afforded an excellent view. Carrying, in orange letters the Scottish Airlines name below the windows and the registration, G-AFZP, the company's rampant lion logo on the fin and the irreverently nicknamed "three pissy cats" either side of the nose, she was a magnificent sight. But, for my money, her claim to fame arose from her engines. Anyone who has heard a North American Harvard trainer with its high-revving Pratt and Whitney Wasp engine emitting a banshee-wail of ear-piecing intensity will remember the sound. 'ZP' had four of these engines in close proximity to the fuselage, each exhausting through a pair of short vertical smoke-stacks. With minimal internal sound-proofing, the noise was indescribable.
Up front, the flight deck was a long narrow affair. The captain sat in the nose, facing a huge circular control wheel. The first officer sat behind him to starboard, with a somewhat smaller wheel. The flight engineer was behind him, with a slightly smaller wheel which was used to operate the flaps.
Engine starting was hilarious. On the command "Go!" the engineer waggled the wobble pump, I waggled the mixture-lever and the captain waggled the throttle. Or maybe it was the other way round. At any rate, I distinctly remember all three of us either going up and down or backwards and forwards.
Ground handling in a high wind was tricky. But she was a grand old lady and the last of her line".
Incidentally, we had a facing pair of seats from 'ZP in the original Prestwick Spotters Club. The seats were beautifully made from red leather and each seat had the KLM logo pressed into the leather.
I actually know where they are now but some vandal has cut out the KLM logos.
Last edited by JW411; 16th May 2011 at 16:38.