Design and Development
Announced by Fokker in April 1962, production was a collaboration between a number of European companies, namely Fokker, MBB of West Germany, Fokker-VFW (also of Germany), and Short Brothers of Northern Ireland. There was also government money invested in the project, with the Dutch government providing 50% of Fokker's stake and the West German government having 60% of the 35% German stake.
Projected at first to transport 50 passengers to 1,650 km (1,025 mi), the plane was later designed to have 60-65 seats. On the design sheet, the F28 was originally to mount Bristol Siddeley BS.75 turbofans, but the prototype flew with the lighter Rolls-Royce "Spey Junior", a simplified version of the Rolls-Royce Spey.
The F28 was similar in design to the BAC 1-11 and DC-9, as it had a T-tail and the engines at the rear of the fuselage. The aircraft had wings with a slight crescent angle of sweep with ailerons at the tip, simple flaps, and five-section liftdumper only operated after landing to dump the lift. The leading edge was fixed and was anti-iced by bleed air from the engines. The tail cone could split and be hydraulically opened to the sides to act as a variable air brake - also used on the contemporaneous Blackburn Buccaneer. This design was also copied and used on the HS-146, which became the BAe-146. It had a retractable tricycle landing gear.
In terms of responsibility for production, Fokker designed and built the nose section, centre fuselage and inner wing; MBB/Fokker-VFW constructed the forward fuselage, rear fuselage and tail assembly; and Shorts designed and built the outer wings.
Final assembly of the Fokker F28 was at Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands.
Read more about this topic: Fokker F28 Fellowship
Famous quotes containing the words design and/or development:
“If I commit suicide, it will not be to destroy myself but to put myself back together again. Suicide will be for me only one means of violently reconquering myself, of brutally invading my being, of anticipating the unpredictable approaches of God. By suicide, I reintroduce my design in nature, I shall for the first time give things the shape of my will.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)
“The proper aim of education is to promote significant learning. Significant learning entails development. Development means successively asking broader and deeper questions of the relationship between oneself and the world. This is as true for first graders as graduate students, for fledging artists as graying accountants.”
—Laurent A. Daloz (20th century)