A Restoration and Revival of the Model 8 Fokker Super Universal - Story by Jean Dueck

So the story goes, there is a flight into the remote Canadian north in summer, 1928. A pilot, a bushplane on floats and four passengers. There are fuel problems and the pilot puts the plane down on the river nudging it over to the shoreline so he and his passengers can disembarque and consider their situation.

Again, the story goes, as they are tying down the aircraft to the riverbank, the little marooned party are amazed to hear a ‘puffing’ sound on the river and around the bend appears the Hudson’s Bay sternwheeler “Northern Echo” loaded with freight, moving upstream. The crew of the “Echo” are equally surprised to see the aircraft and they maneuver the sternwheeler into position along the bank. A big man on the ship calls across the water to the pilot.

“Are you fellows in trouble?”

“Not exactly, but would you have any airplane fuel onboard?"

“Yes,” the big man replies. “There are ten barrels for some fellow named Dickins who thinks he is going to fly in here next winter.” The big man was Colonel Peace River Jim who was to meet the aircraft in Fort Smith. The pilot was indeed The Snow Eagle, Punch Dickins the first Canadian mailplane pilot. The plane was the Fokker Model 8 Super Universal.

This is one of a great collection of myths and lore that are part of the history of aviation in the north. Many of these tales featured bushpilots and bushplanes such as the amazing Fokker Universal designed far away in Germany in the aftermath of WWI, but so well fitted for the rugged and remote north of that day.

As tough and reliable as the plane was among those early types, almost all the Canadian fleet ended up in crash sites where they perished into veritable ‘piles of junk’ too remote and too expensive to retrieve and repair.

This was also the fate of another workhorse of this fleet, CF-AAM who performed on wheels, skis and floats as a scout-plane for Cominco, then as a mailplane and other commercial uses, for Northern Airways based in Carcross. The plane took severe damage from submerged rocks in a river, was repaired and put back into service and within a few flight hours was crashed off the end of the runway in Dawson City in December, 1937.

As the bright yellow and green paint on the wrecked airplane weathered and faded into the forest, so ended the life of this notable aircraft and its role in the development of the north.

The romance of the Super Universal, awkward and bulky on the ground, but gull-like and graceful rising from a river and into the sky, could not languish forever. Adventurers, bush pilots, historians and all kinds of airplane enthusiasts began to dream of the day when CF-AAM restored and flying the northern skies, would again capture the excitement of those early days.

The dream was born with some local pilots with a sense of history and the significance of this airplane. Soon the Western Heritage Museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba became involved and some hard thinking about the realities of restoring this airplane emerged. It was reported to the Whitehorse Star that the wreckage was so extensive that it was flown out in two Air Force Hercules!

In one of those chance meetings between the local Dawson City pilot and Clark Seaborn, the inspiration for completing the restoration was put forward by Clark. As daunting as this task seemed to be, thought Clark, it would be willingly taken on by someone if the restoration payoff would be permission to fly the aircraft as the restorer’s own, for five years or so before it became a permanently housed exhibit.

That challenge was immediately taken up by the museum and offered to Clark, himself. The rest, as they say, is history; AND a new chapter of history for CF-AAM.

After 10,000 hours, and eighteen years of restoration work, Clark’s joy in this airplane is still not the rivets, wood and fabric – hearing these stories are “like watching paint dry” , he says. It is certainly the culmination of a long and happy pastime throughout Clark’s life, restoring and flying old airplanes, but the great international interest in the Super Universal and the opportunities to showcase the aircraft are really the big excitement in this story.

It was a ‘rapt crowd at the Chapter 1410 meeting, some seeing and understanding, for the first time the scope and importance of this project, some of us simply enjoying with Clark, the rewards of all homebuilders who create something personal and unique.

If you haven’t heard Clark’s presentation, you should. If you haven’t seen CF-AAM in the air or on the ground (and I haven’t), you will now have to watch for it at the local airshows. If all else fails, it remains as a permanent exhibit at the Western Heritage Museum in Brandon. Let’s hope they ‘keep it flying’.

 

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1928 Fokker Universal Specifications  

Gross Weight	5150 lb		Range	675 sm
Empty Weight	3000 lb		Climb (SL)	950 fpm
Useful Load	2150 lb		Ceiling	18,000 ft
Seats	8		Powerplant	P & W Wasp (420 hp)
Span	50 ft 8 in		Fuel	126 gal
Length (overall)	36 ft 7 in		Oil	12 gal
Height	8 ft 11 in
Wing Area	370 sq ft		Production (by Atlantic Aircraft)	80
Airfoil	Fokker		Production (by Nakajima - Japan)	29
High Speed	143 mph		Production (by Vickers - Canada)	14
Cruise Speed	120 mph
Landing Speed	56 mph		Year of Introduction	1928
High Speed	143 mph		Certification	ATC 52, Memo 2-3, Memo 2-184
Cruise Speed	120 mph		Price - Early 1928	$17,500
Landing Speed	56 mph		Price - Late 1928	$19,540

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