The Fokker F-10 was an enlarged development of the Fokker F.VII airliner, built in the late 1920s by the

Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America Atlantic Aircraft Corporation, also known as Fokker-America and Atlantic-Fokker, was a US subsidiary of the Dutch Fokker company, responsible for sales and information about Fokker imports, and eventually constructing various Fokker designs."The ...

. It was a

trimotor A trimotor is a propeller-driven aircraft powered by three internal combustion engines, characteristically one on the nose and one on each wing. A compromise between complexity and safety, such a configuration was typically a result of the limit ...

passenger aircraft, and it carried 12 passengers. This was four more than the F.VII it was based on, and it had a larger wing and more powerful engines than that design. A crash of this aircraft in 1931, lead to widespread reforms in the U.S. aviation industry and hurt the reputation of wooden winged' aircraft, especially the Fokker Tri-motor types.

Operational history

Fokker built 65 for commercial and military service. After the crash of a Transcontinental & Western Air F-10 in 1931, killing Notre Dame football coach

Knute Rockne Knute Kenneth Rockne (; March 4, 1888 – March 31, 1931) was an American football player and coach at the University of Notre Dame. Leading Notre Dame for 13 seasons, Rockne accumulated over 100 wins and three national championships. Rockne is ...

and seven others, which was caused by the deterioration of the wooden wing spar, the type was temporarily grounded, and it was required to undergo more frequent and rigorous inspection. Its public image was also greatly damaged, leading to its early retirement from U.S. airlines.

Variants

;F-10 :Initial production variant. ;F-10A :Improved and revised 14-passenger variant powered by three

Pratt & Whitney Wasp The Pratt & Whitney Wasp was the civilian name of a family of air-cooled, radial piston engines developed in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. The Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company (P&W) was founded in 1925 by Frederick B. Rentschler, who had previ ...

radial engines, often called the ''Super Trimotor''. ;C-5 :United States Army designation for the evaluation of one re-engined F-10A powered by three

Wright R-975 Wright is an occupational surname originating in England and Scotland. The term 'Wright' comes from the circa 700 AD Old English word 'wryhta' or 'wyrhta', meaning worker or shaper of wood. Later it became any occupational worker (for example, a ...

radials. ;LB-2 :Light bomber version. ;RA-4 :United States Navy designation for the evaluation of one F-10A.

Operators

Civil operators

; *

American Airways American Airlines, Inc. is a major airline in the United States headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, and is the largest airline in the world in terms of passengers carried and daily flights. American, ...

TWA The Twa, often referred to as Batwa or Mutwa (singular), are indigenous hunter-gatherer peoples of the Great Lakes Region in Central Africa, recognized as some of the earliest inhabitants of the area. Historically and academically, the term � ...

Pan Am Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and more commonly known as Pan Am, was an airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States for ...

* Universal Airlines *

Western Air Express Western Airlines was a major airline in the United States based in California, operating in the Western United States including Alaska and Hawaii, and western Canada, as well as to New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Miami and to Mexi ...

(launch customer ) * Boston-Maine Airways ; * Mexicana * Aerovias Centrales

Military operators

; *

United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...

designations C-5 and C-7A.

Accidents and incidents

* On June 10, 1929, a Pan Am F-10, registration NC9700 and named ''Cuba'', struck telephone wires and crashed while taking off from Santiago de Cuba bound for Havana, killing two of five on board. The aircraft failed to gain altitude due to a waterlogged runway. * On March 31, 1931, a Transcontinental & Western Air F-10 crashed near Bazaar, Kansas after a wing separated in flight, killing all eight on board, including football coach

. * On March 19, 1932, an American Airways F-10A, registration NC652E, struck power lines in heavy fog and crashed into an orchard near

Calimesa, California Calimesa (portmanteau of ''California'' and ''Mesa'', Spanish for " table") is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. Located in the Greater Los Angeles area, the population was 10,026 at the 2020 census, up from 7,879 at the ...

, killing all seven on board. * On September 8, 1932, an American Airways F-10, registration NC9716, crashed into a mountain in poor weather near Salt Flat, Texas, killing three of four on board.

Specifications (F-10)

References

External links

* A contemporary technical article on the Fokker F-10. (Though the article does not mention the long-winged F-10A, the table of specs at the end appear to be for this version. Specs in the rest of the article are for the original F-10.) {{USN transports Fokker F.VII F 10 1920s United States airliners Trimotors High-wing aircraft Aircraft with fixed conventional landing gear