1931-1950

After making a fortune by building outstanding fighter planes for Germany during first World War, the flamboyant Dutch aircraft manufacturer Anthony Fokker turned his talents to commercial aircraft. In his new venture, Fokker, one of the most colorful pioneers of the early days of aviation, was extremely successful. Up until 1925, he concentrated on single-engine airliners, the most famous of which, the Fokker F-VII, was the dominant European airliner of its time. Later on a 3 engined model called Fokker F-VIIb appeared, and the single-engined F-VII became the F-VIIa.
Swiss airline balair added three Fokker F-VII to its fleet. After the merger of balair and ad astra to swissair, the the newly founded company took over one example.

CH-157 / HB-LBO	Fokker F. VIIa # 5005	28.03.1931 1950	CH-157 was the only one of its kind in the swissair fleet. It was taken over from the former swiss airline balair, which owned three examples, after the latter merged with ad astra to become swissair. The Aircraft was bought from Fokker for CHF 90.000. In 1934 the registration became HB-LBO. In 1938 the Passenger Capacity was increased from 8 to 10. In 1939 a new, more powerful engine was installed for the second time (first change in 1933) and the aircraft was withdrawn from regular passenger service and used for schooling purposes and sightseeing flights until 1950. In 1966 it was restored by the Swissair Fokker Team, and is now on display in the transportation museum of Lucerne, Switzerland since 1972.

Sistership CH-158 of Balair

• Verkehrshaus Luzern, Fokker VIIa (german)
• History of Balair (german)
• History of the Fokker F-VIIa and F-VIIb

 Please make sure you read the disclaimer regarding copyrights etc.