Welcome to our video about the Fokker F-26 Phantom, the first jetliner that never made it to production. In the aftermath of World War II, Fokker, once a dominant manufacturer of passenger aircraft, teamed up with Dutch airline KLM and the Dutch National Institute for Aircraft Development to come up with a design for a jetliner. The F26 was unveiled at the 1946 Paris Air Show, where it generated a lot of interest but no orders.
source/image: Found And Explained
The F26 Phantom’s design included a low-wing layout with a 17-seat pressurized fuselage, fully retractable gear, and two Rolls-Royce Nene RB.41 series I jet engines. The engines, with a thrust of 23 kN each, were the most powerful available at that time. The passenger cabin had a single aisle layout, with two seats abreast on the right and a single row on the left. A toilet was located at the rear of the plane, and there were two cargo bays.
Despite the potential of the F26 design, KLM’s executive Mr Plesman believed that producing a jetliner was too big a project for Fokker alone and pushed for cooperation with British manufacturer de Havilland. However, this cooperation mainly focused on engine-related issues, and no combined effort in producing jetliners ever took place. Fokker went on to develop the more feasible design, the F27 Friendship.
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The F26 Phantom was never intended to become a reality, but its significance lies in its early appearance as a jet-powered aircraft when no jet-powered passenger aircraft were designed. The all-metal F26 design was meant to be a technical and economic feasibility study only. The aircraft was designed for a flight crew of three people, including two pilots and one radio operator.This video includes specifications of the Fokker F26 Phantom, such as the cruise speed of 800 km/h, a range of 1,000 km, and the estimated dimensions of the aircraft./Found And Explained
