Short Belfast

The Short Belfast was a heavy lift turboprop freighter built by Short Brothers at Belfast, of which only ten were constructed, all for the Royal Air Force as the Belfast C.1. It grew out of studies that matched four Bristol Orion engines to an airframe built to carry bulky military stores, drew on the Bristol Britannia in its early form and ended with Rolls-Royce Tyne engines and a largely new design. When it entered service it was the largest aircraft the British military had operated, and it was the first designed from the outset for full blind landing equipment. The RAF retired its Belfasts by 1976, and five then flew for the cargo airline HeavyLift.