Short Belfast

  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • TypeHeavy lift turboprop freighter
  • PowerplantsFour 4275kW (5730shp) RollsRoyce Tyne RTy 12 turboprops driving four blade constant speed propellers.
  • PerformanceMax cruising speed 566km/h (306kt), typical cruising speed 510km/h (275kt). Service ceiling 30,000ft. Range with max payload and reserves approximately 1575km (850nm), range with 10 tonne (22,000lb) payload 6200km (3350nm), range with max fuel and reserves 8530km (4605nm).
  • WeightsOperating empty 59,020kg (130,000lb), max takeoff 104,325kg (230,000lb). Max payload 34,000kg (75,000lb).
  • DimentionsWing span 48.41m (158ft 10in), length 41.58m (136ft 5in), height 14.33m (47ft 0in). Wing area 229.1m2 (2466sq ft).
  • CapacityFlightcrew of three or four comprising two pilots, a flight engineer and possibly a navigator. Can accommodate a wide variety of oversize and heavy cargoes such as heavy machinery, industrial equipment such as generators and small aircraft and helicopters.
  • ProductionOnly 10 Belfasts built specifically for the UK's Royal Air Force. One remains in commercial service with Heavylift in 1998 (none are in military service).

With a most extreme takeoff weight of in excess of 100 tons (220,500lb), Short's Belfast is one of the biggest turboprop fueled airplane constructed, behind the enormous 250 ton (551,250lb) max takeoff A 22 (portrayed independently) and Douglas' C133 Cargomaster of the 1950s.

The Belfast was created in light of a Royal Air Force necessity for an overwhelming lift vessel fit for convey an extensive variety of military equipment, including big guns pieces, 200 or more troops, helicopters and/or guided rockets over moderately long runs. Short had concentrated on various substantial vessel plans amid the late 1950s, and what turned into the Belfast started life as the Sc.5/10, outline take a shot at which started in February 1959.

Advancement of the Sc.5/10 outline brought about a first flight of the Belfast on January 5 1964. Outline gimmicks of this enormous flying machine incorporated four Rollsroyce Tyne turboprops mounted on a high wing, a 18 wheel undercarriage (containing two eight wheel primary flounders and two wheel nose undercarriage framework) and beaver tail back stacking entryways and incline. At the point when the Belfast entered administration with the RAF in January 1966 it was the biggest flying machine to be worked by that administration.

The Belfast's military profession was moderately brief, and every one of the 10 were resigned in 1976. Heavylift (then TAC Heavylift) obtained five Belfasts for business benefit in 1977, and three were put into administration in 1980. Marshall of Cambridge performed various alterations on the Belfast which permitted it to be certificated to common guidelines on March 6 1980. From that point forward Heavylift's Belfasts have given the organization a valuable heavylift ability to convey overwhelming and cumbersome estimated burdens, bettered just by its A 124s. One stayed being used in 1998.

Pictures of Short Belfast