Fokker's first jet transport aircraft saw the light in the second half of the 1960s. As was modern in that time the aircraft had its jet engines attached to the rear fuselage and a T-tail to keep the jet exhaust away from the horizontal stabiliser. Unusual however, was the tailcone that could be split and opened to act as an air brake. When closed the two small streamline bodies of the hydraulic actuators are still cearly visible. The vertical stabiliser has quite a large dorsal fin and is rounded on the top. The cockpit windows are also of interest for easy identification, especially the (nearly) D-shaped last side window and the eyebrow windows (on the first generation only). Finally, the aircraft has oval cabin windows.

The different versions of the Fokker F28 can be recognised by:

• the shape of the engine nacelles
• the presence of an eyebrow cockpit window
• the length of the fuselage
• the number of overwing emergency exits
• the presence of a cargo door
• the wing span

The first generation F28 received the nickname Fellowship, similar to Friendship for the F27. All Fellowships have an eyebrow cockpit window on each side. Also they have slim engine nacelles without thrust reversers.

The first version of the F28 was the F28-1000. It is one of the short body subtypes. There is one overwing emergency exit on each side.

This version is the same as the F28-1000, except for the cargo door in the left front fuselage. Depending on the paint quality this is clearly visible. In addition, where the cargo door edges cross the line of cabin windows, there are two missing compared to the standard -1000.

A fuselage stretch of somewhat more than two metres resulted in the F28-2000. Even though it is modestly longer than the F28-1000, this is still cearly visible. If in doubt count the cabin windows: 14 between the door and emergency exit versus 11 on the short body versions. This version has one emergency exit above the wings on each side.

Compared to the F28-1000, which has the same fuselage length, the F28-3000 has a 1.5 m wider span. This means 75 cm extension of each wing tip, so hardly visible, except when you look closely from above or below the wing. Then the size of the area outside the ailerons is larger on the F28-3000 than on the F28-1000.

The F28-3000R is the same as the F28-3000, except with the weight and performance limitations of the F28-1000.

This is the same as the F28-3000 but then with the cargo door of the F28-1000C. The F28-3000RC is the  same to the F28-3000C as the F28-3000R is to the F28-3000.

The F28-4000 combines the long fuselage of the F28-2000 with the wings of the F28-3000. To allow more passengers to be carried, it has two emergency exits on each side, the only Fellowship version to have these. So identification is easy.

The final Fellowship variant was supposed to be an F28-2000 with short field performance. To this extent, it had leading edge slats. The two aircraft built were later converted to F28-2000.

The second generation F28 is characterised by the absence of eyebrow windows for the cockpit (see photo at the top). Furthermore, it has larger diameter engines with thrust reversers.

The shortest of the Rolls Royce Tay powered versions is identified by the single emergency exit above the wings.

Accommodating more than a hundred passenger the Fokker 100, officially designated F28-0100, has two overwing emergency exits. Some aircraft have an additional (larger) exit on the left side, in front of the engine.