Short SC.5 Belfast - Part One

Belfasts at London Southend Airport in the 1990s.
Designed as strategic heavy transports for the Royal Air Force, only ten of the planned thirty Belfasts were built as defence policies changed in the 1960s.
Plans by the manufacturers, Short Brothers, to develop the design as a civilian freighter, a double deck passenger 'Air Bus', a 500 mph jet, and a short take-off tactical military version all came to nothing, so the ten RAF aircraft, given the names of legendary giants, remained the only examples.
All the aircraft were withdrawn in 1976 and placed in storage. A proposal to use them for freight services in Africa resulted in three being moved to Manston in Kent and branded PANAF (Pan African Freight Liners), but this scheme did not develop, and the aircraft were sold to Transmeridian Air Cargo of Stansted.
Converting the aircraft for British civilian certification was complicated by the Belfasts flight characteristics, which did not produce a natural nose drop when approaching stalling speed, so it was necessary to find a cost effective solution, with the work being carried out at Southend.
Two aircraft, G-BEPE and G-BEPS, began civil freight services in 1980 with the brand name of HeavyLift Cargo Airlines, although they operated under special licence as the stall warning system had not been installed, eventually being fitted to the next converted aircraft, G-BFYU, in 1982, and later G-HLFT.
The video begins in 1993, after the pioneer G-BEPE and G-BFYU had been withdrawn, with the remaining un-converted RAF example, XR363 'Goliath'.


Music
'Big Sky' Silent Partner
'Lost Frontier' Kevin MacLeod
Lost Frontier by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-...
Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Photos used with creative commons licence by;
Mike Freer
Mick Lobb
Eduard Marmet

Photos used with authors permission by;
Keith Burton
Richard Vandervord

Belfast profile adapted from artwork by Andy McKay.
http://www.aircraftillustrations.com/...

Video in VHS-C with mono linear sound.