The Fokker F-27 Friendship is one of the most important and popular airliners of the post-war era. This first generation turboprop airliners introduced a new level of service to regional air transport around the world.

Development of the Friendship began in the late 1940s and the basic design was established by 1952.

The prototype Friendship flew on 24 November 1955 and the first production version in March 1958.

A slightly longer version, the F-27-500, first flew in November 1967.

A total of 786 F-27s were produced.

Many F-27s came to Australia from the late 1950s, including 20 F-27-500s. They flew mainly on Australia’s regional routes where they became very popular because of their speed and comfort on long country flights.

Most of the F-27-500s were imported by East-West Airlines in the 1980s.

This model represents VH-EWU flying for East West Airlines in 1988.

Welsh Models 1/1442 kit with Hawkeye decals. Completed in December 2018.