Fokker F.VIII

The Fokker F.VIII, also written F.8, was a large twin-engined airliner designed and produced by Fokker in the 1920s. It resembled the generally three-engined F.VII but had a larger body and no nose engine, which meant less propeller wash wear on the fuselage and much lower vibration for passengers. KLM asked in 1926 for an airliner with more capacity than the F.VII, and designer Reinhold Platz began work at once. Construction was mixed, with a welded steel fuselage frame covered in plywood, canvas and duralumin and an all-wood wing, the standard Fokker approach. The first aircraft used 358 kW Bristol Jupiter radial engines built under licence by Gnome-Rhone, and the F.VIII seated twelve in what was for the period a luxury layout.