Is it time for Fokker aircraft comeback?

Fokker was originally a Dutch aircraft manufacturer starting from 1912 and lasting in
original form until 1996. Named after founder Anthony Fokker company in it's history
was responsible for many successful and famous aircraft from WWI fighters up to
regional airliners Fokker 70 and Fokker 100.
After company went to bankruptcy in 1996 the parts manufacturing business was
bought out by Stork B.V. another important but slightly less famous company which
wisely rebranded through name Fokker Aerospace Group (2010) to Fokker
Technologies (2011) which has 4 business units which all carry Fokker name now:
- Fokker Aerostructures (Lightweight structures)
- Fokker Elmo (Wiring harnesses), when you say Fokker in Airbus this is what most
people would think
- Fokker Landing Gear (Landing gear)
- Fokker Services (Aerospace services provider)
All this branding and rebranding may be where some of the confusion is coming
from.
Out of the ashes of original Fokker as early as 1998 the new company (or an idea of
the company) emerged, this time named as Rekkof Restart. At the time Rekkof was
planning to re-start the production of Fokker F100 which was launched only eight

years (1988) before original company shut-down and at the time was seen as good
product which pilots, mechanics and passengers liked.
Similarly to Fokker Bombardier had very early start of what was later to become
Bombardier C-series, as early as 1999 until project was fully launched in 2007. What
made it possible for C-series to find first buyers was game changing technology
available in Pratt & Whitney geared turbo fan GTF now known as PurePower.
Couple of years down the line, a different company named Netherlands Aircraft
Company is working this time on successor of Fokker 100 called Fokker F120NG.
What wasn't available in 1998 may be available in 2014 which is step change which
would lift this aircraft above the competition which is the same generation of new
engines namely P&W GTF family. Farnborough 2014 in July saw an announcement
of the NAC that they are planning an aircraft based on existing airframe with
modifications only on wing which include extending wingspan to accommodate for
new winglet and some adjustments to the airfoil also including installation of
PurePower 1X17G very similar to the one installed on Mitsubishi MRJ.
Hearing this news, few would remain sceptical as we have heard this before and it
did not happen. However when maths is put on paper there is clear attraction for this
proposal coming from two facts: fuel burn and weight. Fuel burn with new engine
offers unbelievable saving of 50% compared to original Fokker 100. Imagine the
reaction of existing operators when they are told that there is an engine for their
aircraft which consumes only half of fuel!
Weight comparison comes as a total shocker. Comparing original classic Fokker 100
at maximum take off weight to competitors with similar passenger capacity reveals
following (catalogue data):
Fokker 100 46 tons
Embraer 190 E2 57 tons
Bombardier CS100 58 tons
Superjet SSJ 100/95LR 50 tons
Airbus A318 68 tons
Boeing 737-600 66 tons

Although it is not straight comparison as different aircraft have slightly different

numbers of passengers they can accommodate, they do not fly same distances and
do not carry identical payload it can be clearly seen that the Fokker 100 configuration
is inherently lighter. Maybe not a such a big surprise, Comac ARJ21 have similar
weight which is saying interesting point about aircraft configuration with rear fuselage
mounted engines. As a contrary to Comac ARJ21 which is aircraft which still needs
certification from scratch (although it was developed following McDonnell Douglas
MD80 built in China), Fokker 120NG may have the luxury to follow on the proven
F100 and thus cut lot of development time and effort.
In terms of passenger comfort, current configuration offered by Fokker 120NG is
17,5" wide and 30pitched seats with five abreast arrangement for 125 passengers
configuration, which is amongst the widest in industry. As noise levels of new high
by-pass engines are considerably inherently lower the noise in cabin so notorious for
rear engine mounted aircraft could be expected to drop a lot.
In terms of development time commonality between Fokker F100 and F120NG could
allow staged concurrent testing of structures and equipment on old F100 until full
new F120 is available.
In mathematical sense putting these numbers down seems like a no-brainer winning
case.
However there is economical, market view where there are some doubts if the
market for 100 seaters exist and how big it is.
But then, maybe there would be a bigger market if there were good competitive
products to fill it.