Short Belfast Totally Explained

Everything about The Short Belfast totally explained

The Short Belfast is a heavy lift turboprop freighter built by Short Brothers at Belfast. Only 10 were built for the British Royal Air Force with the designation Short Belfast C1. When they were retired by the RAF 5 went into civilian service with the cargo airline HeavyLift Cargo Airlines..
The Belfast was notable for being only the second aircraft type to be built equipped with autoland blind landing equipment.
To meet the demands of the specification the Belfast used a high wing carrying four Rolls-Royce Tyne turboprops. The cargo deck, 64 ft long in a fuselage over 18 feet in diameter (roomy enough for two single deck buses), was reached through a "beaver tail" with rear loading doors and integral ramp. The main undercarriage was two 8-wheel bogies and a 2-wheel nose. The Belfast was capable of a maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of over 220,500 lb (100 tonnes) but still less than the contemporaneous 250-tonne MTOW Antonov An-22 and the 128-tonne MTOW Douglas C-133 Cargomaster. It could carry 150 troops with full equipment, or a Chieftain tank or two Westland Wessex helicopters.

Service

The original RAF requirement had foreseen a fleet of 30 aircraft, but this number was to be significantly curtailed as a result of the Sterling Crisis of 1965. The United Kingdom government needed to gain support for its loan application to the IMF, which the United States provided. However, one of the alleged clauses for this support was that the RAF purchase Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft. With a surplus of airlifting capabilities the original order was reduced to 10. The Belfast entered service with No. 53 Squadron RAF in January 1966 based at RAF Fairford. By May the following year they'd been repositioned at RAF Brize Norton.
   Following entry to RAF service it became apparent that a major drag problem was preventing the initial five aircraft attaining Short’s desired performance figures. Indeed the suction drag on the tail and rear fuselage was so severe that the RAF nicknamed the aircraft ‘The Dragmaster’. Retrospective modifications and testing were carried out, particularly on aircraft SH1818 (which was at the time perfecting the RAF’s requirement for CAT 3 automated landings at RAE Bedford), and a new rear fairing was incorporated improving the fleet’s cruising speed by 40mph.
   The reorganisation of the newly formed Strike Command was to have repercussions of the RAF’s Belfast fleet and ushered in the retirement of a number of aircraft types including the Bristol Britannia and De Havilland Comet in 1975. By the end of 1976 the Belfast fleet had been retired and flown to RAF Kemble for storage.
   TAC Heavylift then purchased 5 of them for commercial use in 1977, and operated three of them from 1980 after they'd received work so they could be certificated to civil standards. Ironically, some of them were later chartered during the Falklands war, with some sources suggesting that this cost more than keeping all the aircraft in RAF service until the 1990s. The type entered something of a hiatus after being retired from TAC Heavylift service and several were parked at Southend Airport for a number of years until one aircraft was refurbished and flown to Australia in 2003. This aircraft is still flying (2007) in Australia for HeavyLift Cargo Airlines; it's often clearly visible parked on the General Aviation side of Cairns International Airport in Queensland, in company with one or two of the company's Boeing 727s. A second, G-BEPS (SH1822), is to join her in Australia following a refurbishment at Southend Airport. The last production Belfast (Enceladus XR371) is preserved at the RAF Museum Cosford. Recently this aircraft has had a repaint before being preserved undercover at the National Cold War Exhibition.

Aircraft

All 10 Belfasts were named:

Samson - RAF Serial XR362 (used registration G-ASKE for overseas test flight), sold as G-BEPE then scrapped
Goliath - RAF Serial XR363, sold as G-OHCA then scrapped
Pallas - RAF Serial XR364, sold as scrap to Rolls-Royce who recovered the Tyne engines
Hector - RAF Serial XR365, sold as G-HLFT then as 9L-LDQ operating with HeavyLift Cargo Airlines, now RP-C8020 (see image above)
Atlas - RAF Serial XR366, sold to RR for engines
Heracles - RAF Serial XR367 - sold as G-BFYU then scrapped
Theseus - RAF Serial XR368, sold as G-BEPS then in storage at Southend Airport - under restoration to fly with HeavyLift Cargo Airlines (see reference)
Spartacus - RAF Serial XR369, sold as G-BEPL then scrapped
Ajax - RAF Serial XR370, sold to RR for engines
Enceladus- RAF Serial XR371, preserved as an exhibit at RAF Museum Cosford

Military operators

Royal Air Force

No. 53 Squadron RAF

Civil operators

HeavyLift Cargo Airlines

TAC HeavyLift

Specifications (Belfast C Mk.1)

Further Information

Get more info on 'Short Belfast'.

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