Short Belfast: Ауыр көтергіш turboprop ұшағы

Heavy lift turboprop freighter

The Short Belfast (or Shorts Belfast) is a heavy lift turboprop freighter that was built by British manufacturer Short Brothers at Belfast. Only 10 aircraft were constructed, all of which entered service with the Royal Air Force (RAF), who operated it under the designation Short Belfast C.1. Upon its entry into service, the Belfast was the largest aircraft that the British military had ever operated up to that time. Following the formation of RAF Strike Command and a reorganisation of transport assets, the RAF decided to retire all of its Belfast transports by the end of 1976. Shortly after the type had been retired by the RAF, five Belfasts were sold and placed into civilian service with the cargo airline TAC HeavyLift. Little is known about the new owners or the future plans for the aircraft, however rumours online say that the aircraft will be operating a cargo contract "Local" to Queensland, Australia.

The Belfast has its origins in studies conducted by aircraft manufacturer Short Brothers into the possibility for matching an arrangement of four Bristol Orion turboprop engines with an airframe that had been optimised for the purpose of transporting various military stores during the mid 1950s. It was decided to continue these studies as part of the firm's management believed that it was highly likely that there would likely be an Operational Requirement issued for the Royal Air Force (RAF) seeking such an aircraft in the near future, although Sir Matthew Slattery, chairman of Shorts, expressed his doubt of the practicality of such an aircraft. Slattery believed that developing such an aircraft from scratch would lack sufficient market prospects and instead encouraged the use of as many components and systems from the existing Bristol Britannia transport aircraft as would be reasonably possible, a measure that was seen as logical and practical, acting to reduce development time and cost while improving reliability, with the downside of lesser performance. The first autolanding was performed after only 120 hours' test flying, less than originally estimated. According to Shorts Brothers Chairman, C. E Wrangham, the Belfast had a forecast break even point of 30 aircraft.

Multiple derivatives of the Belfast were proposed by Short. Two principal civil versions of the aircraft, designated as SC5/10A and SH5/31, were mooted during the early 1960s. For this variant, the fuselage of the Belfast would have been paired with the wing of the Lockheed C 141 Starlifter, which would have readily enabled the adoption of turbojet engines in place of the turboprops. Speculated engines to power this variant included the Pratt & Whitney JT3D 3 (18,000 1b thrust) or JT3D 8 (21,000 1b), Rolls Royce Conway 550 (21,825 1b) or Bristol Siddeley BS.100 (27,000 1b approximately). A broadly similar but improved proposal, designated as SC.5/45, was heavily promoted by Shorts for Operational Requirement ASR.364, partly on the basis that it would also enable a near identical civil orientated model to be produced for home and export use, designated as SC.5/41. Detailed presentations on the SC.5/41 and SC.5/45 proposals were made to British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and RAF respectively, but no military order was forthcoming.

The Short Belfast was a large heavy lift strategic transport aircraft. It featured a high mounted wing, which carried four Rolls Royce Tyne turboprop engines. According to aerospace publication Flight International, the design of the assemblies of the surfaces of both the tail and wing of the Belfast had been derived from the Bristol Britannia. The fuselage of the Belfast was a relatively conservatively stressed cylinder of a conventional design. It was developed with a target safe life of 15,000 pressure cycles, which was fatigued tested using a complete fuselage immersed in a water tank. Fail safe principles were used in the design of the large side door, rear ramp and door. Unusually for service aircraft, all the Belfasts were given names
Following the type's entry into RAF service, it became apparent that a major drag problem was preventing the initial five aircraft from attaining Short's desired performance. Modifications and testing were subsequently 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 developed, which had the result of raising the fleet's cruising speed by 40 mph. The reorganisation of the new RAF Strike Command was to have repercussions on 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, Gloucestershire for long term storage.

TAC HeavyLift purchased five Belfasts for commercial use in 1977 and operated three of them from 1980 after being reworked to receive commercial certification. 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. HeavyLift's Belfasts were again contracted to support the RAF during the first Gulf War, transporting vehicles and helicopters too large to be carried by the Hercules fleet. After being retired from TAC HeavyLift service, several were parked at Southend Airport for a number of years. One aircraft was refurbished and flown to Australia in 2003, operated by HeavyLift Cargo Airlines. This aircraft is no longer flying; it was often 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. Now registered RP C8020, it was moved to the general aviation (western) side of the Cairns airport on 19 August 2011, after spending the best part of a year sitting on the Cairns International apron where it had been moved prior to the scrapping of the remaining company Boeing 727 (RP C8016) at the end of September 2010. The HeavyLift titles were painted over on 28 August 2011, but the registration RP C8020 was still visible. The aircraft was photographed intact, but with no registration visible, at Cairns Airport on 7 August 2017. Following registration with the FAA as N1819S, the Cairns Belfast is apparently undergoing restoration to flight and return to service. A second Belfast, G BEPS (SH1822), was to have joined her in Australia following refurbishment at Southend Airport, but was instead scrapped in October 2008. The last production Belfast (Enceladus, XR371) is preserved at the RAF Museum Cosford. This aircraft was repainted before being displayed under cover at the National Cold War Exhibition.