Saturday 27 July 2024

Fokker Super Universal & Fokker Trimotor

In the Spring of 1932, the Lytton Commission headed by Lord Lytton, and including four other members, from the US (Major General Frank Ross McCoy), Germany (Doctor Heinrich Schnee), Italy (Count Luigi Aldrovandi Marescotti), and France (General Henri Claudel), spent six weeks in Manchuria (present-day North East China) on a fact-finding mission regarding the Mukden Incident. The Commision returned to Manchuria in early September but this time, the area was plagued by a large series of trains attacks. More specifically, bandits were planning an attack on the express train transporting the German governor Heinrich Schnee and French general Henri Claudel, during their voyage back to Europe, aiming to kidnap them for ransom. Due to the dangerous situation, airplanes were instead used during their journey as a safety measure. 
This short video, shows the members of the Commision traveling to Tsitsihar (present-day Qiqihar) on board a Fokker Super Universal and a Ford F.VII Trimotor.


The Super Universal is registered "J-EJDO". It was built in the US, s/n #875 and had a Bristol Jupiter engine. Note the "Fokker" logo behind the engine and on the tail. After its purchase, it joined the Japan Air Transport (Nippon Koku Yuso) fleet on September 27, 1930, and was based in Dairen (present-day Dalian).

The Ford Trimotor is registered "J-BBTO". It was built by Fokker, s/n #5214 and had three Wright Whirlwind radial engines. It joined the Japan Air Transport fleet on August 6, 1930, was based in Tachikawa and was nicknamed "Kamo" (duck).

2 comments:

David Brizzard said...

Thank you for these CIVIL photos. Good to see something different.

gabriel stern said...

Ditto!