411A:
Now none of us are getting any younger and it was 1972 when I got to the Belfast. However, I'm not sure that the habit that the C-133 had for shedding engines wasn't more connected to the electric props rather than the P&W T34 engines themselves.
I'm pretty sure in my own mind that Andy (my friend who did an exchange on the C-133) told me that there was an electrical scenario whereby all four props would feather and that could, at the very best, ruin your whole day. At the very worst, it could mean disappearing without trace.
You and I are old enough to remember aircraft that suffered cascading bus bars. The present generation wouldn't understand such a thing.
Nor would they believe that if you didn't remember to put the RR Dart into ground fine during the landing run then you would melt all four engines down within seconds as soon as you breathed on the throttles.
Incidentally, the freight bay on the Belfast was about the same length as the C-133 at just under 90 feet. However, since the C-133 was really designed for carrying IRBMs and ICBMs. it was a bit narrower.
The Belfast freight bay was a minimum of 12 foot square and was the only aircraft apart from the C-5A (and the Antonov) that could carry a JT-9 (complete with cowls etc). This we did for Pan American on a fairly regular basis.
We could also get a BAC 1-11 fuselage (or a Fokker 28) fuselage inside. All you had to with a Sikorsky S-61 (Sea King) was to take the main rotors off. Two Pumas went in easily back to back. We would take them to Belize and they were usually airborne within an hour of landing and unloading. All that was required was a quick rotor tracking check.
The aircraft was designed for moving indivisible loads and nothing else.
Having said that, one of the more bizarre loads that I ever did was a complete building for the Canadian DOT. We were at Gander on the way back from Forbes AFB when we got the request/order. The building was needed at Goose Bay and was in a hangar at St John's. So, we off-loaded and positioned down to St John's.
That year, the sea never did thaw out so we were being asked to shift the whole building by air. The building was complete right down to the toilets and even a flag pole complete with a flag! As best as I can recall, the whole thing weighed about 78,500 lbs. We would certainly not have got that sort of weight across the Atlantic!