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OY-DIG Merkur, a Fokker F.XII built by Orlogsvaerftet in Denmark in 1933. It operated on a Berlin-Copenhagen and Hamburg-Hanover run.
THOUGH it has strong ties with most of the Fokker airliner family of the 1920s and early 1930s, the closest relationship of the Fokker F.XII lies with the F.VIIb/3m. Designed during 1930, the F.XII was intended as a larger and slightly more advanced airliner than the F.VIIb/3m, but without the capacity of the 20-seat F.IX.
Produced to meet a requirement by KLM for a medium-capacity airliner the F.XII was powered by three of the well-proved 425-hp Pratt & Whitney Wasp C radials. The first example flew early in 1931, and set off for Batavia on a route-proving trial on March 5, 1931. This went well, and the F.XII entered scheduled service on the route on October I, 1931. Fokker built II of the type: eight for KLM, two for KNILM (the Dutch East Indies operator) and one for the Swedish operator AB Aerotransport. This last was powered by 500-hp Pratt & Whitney Wasp TID I radials, and had accommodation for only 14 passengers compared with the Dutch machines’ 16. This Swedish aircraft had Townend rings round the engines to reduce drag, and was originally provided with a spatted undercarriage. These two features were a spasmodic retrofit to the Dutch aircraft. The Swedish aircraft was finally destroyed in a hangar fire at the end of 1946.
The commercial attractions of the F.XII were instrumental in persuading the Danish airline DDL to acquire the type, in this instance a single example produced in only three months by Orlogsvaerftet. Powered by three 465-hp Bristol Jupiter VI radials and able to carry 16 passengers, it was delivered in May 1933. The type was successful, and DDL thus ordered an improved model, the F.xIIM. This was about 20km/h (12 mph) faster than the Dutch-built F.XIIs. Both aircraft appear to have been scrapped in 1947.
The two F.XIIs operated by KNILM were probably destroyed in World War II. Of the seven F.XIIs used by KLM (the first aircraft having crashed in 1935), one was sold to Air Tropic in 1936 and then faded from the scene, and the remaining six aircraft were sold to British operators. Four were bought by Crilly Airways in 1936, and two by British Airways. Four were then sold to Spain, one crashed in November 1936, and the last was scrapped in 1940, when it had passed into the possession of BOAC.
F.XII
Type: long-range transport
Maker: Fokker BV; Orlogsvaerftet
Span: 23.02 m (75 ft 6 ¼ in)
Length: 17.8m (58ft 4 ¾ in)
Height: 4.73m (15ft 6in)
Wing area: 83 m2 (893 sq ft)
Weight: maximum 7750 kg (17 086Ib); empty 4350 kg (9590Ib)
Powerplant: three 425-hp Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp C 9-cylinder air-cooled radial engines
Performance: cruising speed 205km/h (127mph); range 1300 km (808 miles)
Payload: 1620kg (3571Ib); seats for up to 16 passengers
Crew: 2
Production: 13
