Shorts Belfast- farewell!
 

The old shorts Belfast is set to leave to the UK tommrow (16th). She will soldier on....

The Guv (NR) will probably be inside dreaming up his lastest L1011 and Belfast colour schemes ;)

Any more details on who will be operating it?

Shorts Belfast @ PIK

O_B

I think you'll find that Neil Robertson IS inside but it has nothing to do with a Belfast......................

Flight planned out to Malta this morning from Prestwick at 9z with 6 hours en-route

Still there when I drove past 45mins ago!

I flew on a Belfast from Norway to Stansted years ago, it took SEVEN hours!!!!. Fast she aint!!!!

My intentions are at the moment that the Belfast has not left
And it is now 16:05pm.

Kris

Well it`s finally happened the Belfast has just departed PIK at 1748 en route to Malta. I`m sure we all wish it a safe trip.

Just seen her overhead Manchester in and out of some Alto-cirrus, wonderful sight and sound. Had the whole family out in the garden waving goodbye......

She's already left Malta heading East - not sure of the final destination but thanks to this forum there's at least one person in Malta very happy for the tip-off.

Thanks on his behalf.

:ok:

Parked o/night MLA at Park 4, departed 09:48 local, runway 14.

Dumb question time.

Is the Belfast based on its obvious lookalike competitor? [or vice versa?].

Why did one succeed and the other fail to 'take off' in comparison? Money? Politics? Technical reasons?

Can anyone provide a quick 'compare and contrast' between the Belfast and the Herc? From my limited knowledge the Belfast appears superior in most respects - but my knowledge is very limited.

Enquiring minds need to know!

Belfast is a lot larger then C130. Problem is that in order to guarantee inexpensive development, she has Britannia wings and RR Tyne engines that are not powerfull enough.

Anyone know why a re-engine program was never endulged in?

Who were the drivers?

The Boss is Brian Porter

The route is: EGPK-LMML
LMML-OOMS
OOMS-VCBI
VCBI-WRRR
WRRR-YBBN

Quite a trip!

Hornblower, sorry to be a bore, but could you decipher those codes ? Thanks.

ICAO Codes
 

EGPK-Prestwick
LMML-Malta
OOMS-Muscat, Oman
VCBI-Colombo,Sri Lanka
WRRR-Bali Indonesia
YBBN-Brisbane,Australia

Hope this helps

Belfast not developed because it faced the axe along with so many world beating projects by governments 1964-1979 (mainly labour!) Then as now America rules the world!!

i.e. Cancel the worlds best combat a/c -TSR2 and buy (and spoil) Phantoms and order then cancel(but still pay for) F111s. Then force the RAF to have the brilliant Bucc as strike aircraft but still fail to develop further.

Fail to develop Lightning from a point -point interceptor into a true air defence fighter.Then use mud moving phantoms as replacements.

Cancel 4 jet HS146 and let Gulfstream and Dassault corner the long range biz jet market.Then re-invent 146 15 years later.

Cancel supersonic VSTOL development, only to let yanks improve Harrier then go on to "invent" supersonic VSTOL for 21stC.

Buy C130(not a bad choice really) but fail to develop Belfast that could have cornered market in heavy lift prior to US and Russian dominance.Retire Belfast after only 10 years of service, then have to hire civilian freighters and finally lease C17s in late '90s to support world wide commitments.

These are just a few shambolic episodes I can recall from memory.Research will reveal many more but don't! you'll be crying in yer Budweiser!

What a bunch of :mad: ing :mad: wits

Spose the only good thing from this period was the Hawk - a true world beater.Yet here we are again - nearly 30 years in service and only now is the government looking for a replacement, which turns out to be more Hawks! Why not buy a batch of single seat Mk 200s that could have been employed in the mid 80s rather than buying ex US Navy F4Js!? Why not buy an attrition batch of trainers at the same time, then we wouldnt have needed to lease Alpha Jets for research work!!

The mind boggles :*

So did she make it?

You gotta be kidding about the HS146.
Who (or is it whom) would want a slooooow 146 when you can have a fast Gulfstream?

With proper engines that don't fill the cabin with fumes.

No comment

Sure did. The Belfast arrived in Brisbane on 21 Sep and has already operated a revenue service.

Cheers from Belfast Central