Fokker’s bankruptcy in 1996 was not a reflection of the excellence of their Fokker 100 product line, which had proven itself more than a worthy successor to the F28 and successfully managed to break into the US marketplace with mainline airlines such as American and USAir. The F100 mould owned by JC Wings, as part of their broad and decent regional aircraft line, and used by Gemini is excellent. It is a shame that it has been quite ignored by both manufacturers especially when the F100 got over the hump of losing its original manufacturer and the subsequent spare parts shortage to gain something of a second life with a variety of operators in Europe and Australia. Having not really made much of a dent in Asia it isn’t especially surprising that JC Wings have largely ignored their mould but even they would you expect have produced a China Eastern version. Gemini have less excuse but they are after all Gemini and models from the last century simply rarely fit their criteria for being made. A few F100 releases over the past couple of years show the mould is still available and I think there is fertile ground for more F100s, especially when Europe is taken into the equation. It is quite easy to come up with over 50 big Fokkers just begging to be made. Here’s a rundown by geographic region of 52: UK The most important Fokker region for me is the UK where the type saw plenty of service with smaller scheduled airlines like: AirUK / KLM UK Air Europe British Midland Northern & Mid Europe Swissair – As launch customer for the F100 it is very surprising that no Swissair examples have been made at all. Plus there are multiple available liveries, although surely the chocolate stripe is the best: The F100 was popular with a variety of well-known and long-standing regional airlines: Air Inter Brit Air TAT Portugalia Transwede Helvetic Germany Later in life Germany became an important F100 bolthole: Air Berlin Deutsche BA / dBA Germania Hapag Lloyd Express OLT Express The Med The Mediterranean region also saw a variety of F100 operators often for smaller national airlines from countries under-represented in 1:400: Alpi Eagles Carpatair Palair Macedonian Montenegro Airlines North America American (with 75) and USAir (with 40) were the big US operators but F100s also wore the attractive yellow of Midway and hopped across the border to serve with JetsGo. InterCanadien has already been done but it’s short-lived rename to Intair is still a possibility. Midway Airlines Intair JetsGo Latin America Fokkers were popular in Latin America especially at Mexicana where the type wore many scheme variants over the years. TAM of Brasil was also a major operator. Avianca AVIACSA Mexicana Mexicana Click Ocean Air TAM Wayraperu Asia Never a major seller in widebody happy Asia the F100 has in recent years become a popular type in Iran. China Eastern Iran Air Iran Asseman Korean Air Qeshm Air Australia The most F100s left in service operate in OZ where Alliance keep over 20 online: Air Niugini Alliance Skywest
2 Comments
Denny Payne
19/4/2019 02:11:20 pm
The Portugalia has actually been made - I have one:
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Thomas Weber
19/4/2019 06:16:04 pm
Despite a lot of US attention (comparatively), I am still holding out for a US Airways F100 in the black “Darth Vader” livery.
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I'm Richard Stretton, an aviation enthusiast and major collector of 400 scale model aircraft. This blog discusses ongoing events in the world of 400 scale. This site is free. Please donate to keep it going.
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