Mohawk Airlines Fairchild FH-227B  N7809M                     (c/n  525)

                                    

                                          In the mid 1960s Mohawk had expanded so much that it began referring to itself as a Regional carrier
                                          rather than a Local Service Provider (the CAB's term).   In 1965 it ordered a fleet of 18 Fairchild Hiller
                                          FH-227s. (later increased to 25).  The FH-227 differed from the standard F-27 in having a fuselage
                                          stretch of six feet to provide for a maximum of 52 passengers.  It was the US equivalent of Fokker's
                                          F27 Mk. 500.  Mohawk operated these aircraft to serve many of the smaller airports on their now
                                          quite extensive system in upstate New York and through to Erie and Detroit.  The above photograph,
                                          although acquired from Mohawk, is undoubtedly a manufacturer's shot.  After a season of the snow and
                                          ice of Syracuse (I lived there when this aircraft was delivered in 1966) it certainly never looked that clean
                                          again!    N7809M passed to the Allegheny Airlines asset register in 1972 when the two lines merged and
                                          was later sold off in 1975 to the Yugoslavian charter line Pan Adria as YU-ALA.  Passing on to the parent
                                          company Trans Adria, it was last reported derelict at Zagreb Airport in the early 1980s