Nose Job
Moving a Belfast into a hangar by lifting up the nose may seem a bit drastic but at least it went in fore and aft. As a new aircraft fitter propulsion posted to Thorney Island in December 1966 ( so new the trade didn't exist until Aptil 1967 ), I was posted onto Beverley 2nd line. The procedure for inserting and extracting the Bev into and out of the hangar was in essentials similar to the Belfast except we did it sideways!
In order to get it into the hangar the aircraft was positioned across the hangar entrance with the main undercarriage on two skates to enable the aircraft to be towed sideways into the hangar. To get the fins down low enough to go through the hangar doors the nosewheel was on a third skate which could elevate the nose undercarriage to the required height after which the whole ensemble was towed sideways into the hangar, the nose then lowered ensuring the fins the went up BETWEEN the rafters of the hangar and the aircraft jacked to remove the skates.
A problem could, and to my knowledge did arise on at least one occasion, in that there was no limit switches to control how far you could lift the nose and unless constantly monitored you could lift it too far until the nose began lifting of its own accord! The situation was saved by the immediate addition of a number of techies to the nose skate until the down button was pressed and the skate and nose undercarriage returned to Terra Firma.
In the words of Max Boyce "I know cos I was there".