When the Fokker Universal arrived at the Alberta Aviation Museum in late 2024, its future as a restoration project was filled with unknowns. Structurally battered from a 1944 landing accident, and missing many of its original components, the aircraft’s condition was more than just weathered—it was warped.
Thanks to a serendipitous encounter with modern technology, we now have a much clearer picture of just how warped—and just how restorable—it may be.
3D Scanning the Fokker
In January, Irene Radcliff, an engineer and instructor with FARO Technologies, visited the museum to conduct client training sessions. FARO specializes in portable 3D scanning and measurement systems, and during their rental of our boardroom, Irene and her team offered a generous bonus: to scan some of our historic aircraft, including the newly arrived Fokker Universal, and share the results freely with the museum.
While the resolution of the resulting scan isn’t high enough for fine-detail conservation work, it provided an unexpectedly valuable insight: a clear visualization of the airframe’s post-crash deformation
What the Scan Revealed
The Fokker’s 1944 accident—where a soft-field landing caused the tail to lift and the nose to dig in—was always believed to have left the airframe compromised. But until now, the exact nature and extent of the damage remained anecdotal. The 3D scan shows that, remarkably, most of the aircraft’s fuselage remains square and true. Only the two structural stations forward of the main break show evidence of twist, confirming that the damage, though dramatic in photos, is actually confined to a manageable portion of the frame.
For our restoration team, this is more than a curiosity—it’s cause for cautious optimism. Knowing that the twist is isolated helps us plan the future disassembly, straightening, and reconstruction of the airframe with greater precision and confidence.
*Cross-sections fuselage from scan data, showing last three sections before fuselage break. The data reveals the fuselage is only twisted in the final two sections
A Digital Step Toward a Hands-On Future
This is just the beginning. The Fokker Universal project will be a long-term effort involving historical research, structural conservation, and careful restoration. But thanks to the kindness and curiosity of Irene Radcliff and the FARO team, we now have a better roadmap for what lies ahead.
As the museum works to return this aircraft to its former glory—not necessarily to fly, but to inspire—digital tools like this 3D scan remind us that aviation history isn’t just about the past. It’s about using the best tools of the present to preserve what came before.
Stay tuned for more updates as we begin peeling back the layers of this remarkable aircraft’s story.