Short Belfast

infobox Aircraft
name = Belfast
type = Heavy airfreighter
manufacturer = Short Brothers

---

caption = Short Belfast of Transmeridian Air Cargo at Stansted in 1979
designer =
first flight = 5 January 1964
introduced =
retired = from RAF service 1976
status =
primary user = RAF
more users = HeavyLift Cargo Airlines [http://heavyliftcargo.com/ HeavyLift Cargo Airlines ] ]
produced =
number built = 10
unit cost =
variants with their own articles =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 C.1. When they were retired by the RAF, five went into civilian service with the cargo airline HeavyLift Cargo Airlines. Three aircraft remain in existence, one of which is on display at the RAF Museum Cosford.

History

The Belfast was developed to meet a Royal Air Force requirement for a freighter capable of carrying a wide range of military loads over long ranges. The military loads envisaged included artillery, more than 200 troops, helicopters, and guided missiles. Shorts' design was based on studies they had worked on in the late 1950s and the project started as the SC.5/10 in February 1959. From that design, the prototype Belfast first flew on 5 January 1964. The aircraft was flown by Shorts' chief test pilot Denis Taylor, the crew consisted of Peter Lowe (2nd pilot), Malcolm Wild (engineer), Ricky Steel (flight engineer), Bill Mortimer (radio operator & navigator), Alex Mackenzie and Gil Thomas (flight observers) ["Flight International", No. 2862, Vol. 85, 16 January 1964, p. 97.] .

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.

ervice

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 had 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 personel gave the aircraft the nicknames ‘The Dragmaster’, 'Slug' and 'Belslow'.Fact|date=August 2007 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 40 mph.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 five of them for commercial use in 1977, and operated three of them from 1980 after they had 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 1990sref|commercialaircraft. 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 is 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), was to join her in Australia following a refurbishment at Southend Airport but is now to be scrapped after being stripped for spares. 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. [ [http://www.historyofaircargo.com/i-RAF-Short-Belfast-C1.-RAF-Museum.html Image at www.HistoryofAirCargo.com] ]

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 - to be scrapped
* "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

; UK
* Royal Air Force
** No. 53 Squadron RAF

Civil operators

; AUS
* HeavyLift Cargo Airlines; UK
* TAC HeavyLift

pecifications (Belfast C Mk.1)

aircraft specifications
plane or copter?=plane
jet or prop?=prop
ref=
crew=Basic aircrew 4 (two pilots, engineer & navigator/radio operator) plus reserve crew
capacity= 11,750 cu. ft.
payload main=80,000 lb
payload alt=36,288 kg
length main= 136 ft 5 in
length alt=41.70 m
span main=158 ft 10 in
span alt=48.1 m
span sweep=
height main=47 ft
height alt=14.33 m
area main= 2,466 ft²
area alt= 229.1 m²
airfoil=
empty weight main= 130,000 lb
empty weight alt= 59,020 kg
loaded weight main=
loaded weight alt=
useful load main=
useful load alt=
max takeoff weight main=230,000 lb
max takeoff weight alt= 104,300 kg
more general=
engine (prop)=Rolls-Royce Tyne R.Ty.12, Mk. 101 turboprops,
type of prop= Hawker Siddeley Dynamics 4/7000/fully-feathering airscrews of 16 ft. diam.
number of props=4
power main= 5,730 ehp
power alt=4,270 kW
power original=
max speed main=
max speed alt=
cruise speed main= 358 mph
cruise speed alt= 576 km/h
stall speed main=
stall speed alt=
never exceed speed main=
never exceed speed alt=
range main= 5,200 miles
range alt= 8,368 km
range more=with capacity fuel load of 80,720 lb
ceiling main= 30,000 ft
ceiling alt= 9,100 m
climb rate main= 1,060 ft/min
climb rate alt= 323 m/min
loading main=
loading alt=
thrust/weight=
power/mass main=
power/mass alt=
more performance=
* Range with maximum payload: 970 miles (1,560 km)
armament=
avionics=

ee also

aircontent
related=

similar aircraft=
*Airbus A400M

sequence= Short SC.1 - Shorts SC.7 Skyvan- Short SC5 Belfast - Shorts 330

lists=
* List of aircraft of the RAF

see also=

References

Notes

# Robert Hewson (Ed.) (2001). "Commercial Aircraft and Airliners" (2nd ed). Aerospace Publishing Ltd and Airlife Publishing Ltd. ISBN 1-84037-064-5

External links

* [http://www.britishaircraft.co.uk/aircraftpage.php?ID=37 Shorts Belfast specifications]
* [http://heavyliftcargo.com/belfastcap.htm Shorts Belfast capabilities]
* [http://www.airliners.net/info/stats.main?id=355 Shorts Belfast specs and history at airliners.net]
* [http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/short-brothers-belfast-ci.htm Shorts Belfast XR371 "Encedalus" at RAF Museum]
* [http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=XR371&distinct_entry=true Shorts Belfast XR371 "Encedalus" photo gallery at airliners.net]
* [http://www.abpic.co.uk/search.php?q=XR371&u=reg Shorts Belfast XR371 "Encedalus" photo gallery at Air-Britain Photos]
* [http://www.flightglobal.com/Articles/2007/01/04/Navigation/177/211367/Picture+Second+Shorts+SC-5+Belfast+oversized+freighter+restored+for+17%2c000km+ferry+flight+and.html Second Shorts SC-5 Belfast goes from UK to Australia to reenter service]