In 1960 the Koninklijke Luchtmacht received the first of its 12 F-27s. They came to replace the Dakotas of 334 squadron at Ypenburg. At first the planes had a colourfull white/orage colourscheme but that changed in August 1971 when they were camouflaged. The squadron moved from Ypenburg to Soesterberg and later to Eindhoven. They were phased out in 1996 in favour of the Fokker 50, the Fokker 60 and of cours the Lockheed Hercules. In 1996 four Fokker 60 UTA aircraft were taken on charge, serialed U-01 to U-04; later two of them (U-01 and U-03) were refurbished to become maritime patrol aircraft and stationed at Hato, Curacao. They stayed there for only 3 years. All 4 aircraft were eventually sold to Peru. The KLu also operated 2 F-27 Maritime (MPA) aircraft for maritime work on the Dutch Antilles. These 2 aircraft (serialed M-1 and M-2) were to replace the Dutch Navy Neptunes; they served from 1980 till 1999 with 336 squadron.
Leave a Reply