‘The Few’ is a series of titles where the focus will be on airliners that were only built or operated in a few numbers and flew for a particular airline. This book about the Farman Jabiru series, the first French monoplane airliner.
The first French monoplane airliner was the Farman F.3X Jabiru (later F.120), that first flew in September 1923. It immediately won the Grand Prix des avions de transport, held the same month. This four-engined aircraft entered service with Société Générale de Transport Ariens (SGTA–Lignes Farman) on the Paris–Brussels–Amsterdam service and later also flew to Cologne and Berlin. The SGTA–Lignes Farman also operated the single-engined F.170 Jabiru on its network until all types were replaced by the F.190 and F.300-series. The Compagnie Internationale de Navigation Aérienne (CIDNA) operated a three-engined version, which became known as the F.4X Jabiru (later F.120 T) and it was introduced on the air service to Switzerland, Austria, the Balkan and Poland. The Farman Jabiru was further developed into a series of military and civil aircraft.
After a demonstration flight in May 1925, and some trial flights in September, Det Danske Luftfartselskab AS (Danish Air Lines) decided to purchase four Farman F.121 Jabirus for operation on its routes and extending the network with an air service from Copenhagen via Cologne in Germany. Two of the four aircraft were built under license at the Danish Orlogsværftet in Denmark. The aircraft type performed not too well on the network of DDL and was gradually replaced by the single-engined Fokker F.VIIa, that was cheaper to operate.
This book will tell the story of the operation of the aircraft type with SGTA–Lignes Farman, CIDNA and DDL from 1925 and onward, well-illustrated with more than 300 photographs, and including tables, and colour profiles.
