A new replacement for the A400 has just hit the market
 

It's bigger and can haul more than a Herc :E

Shorts Belfast SC-5 Super Transporter for sale by Flightstar Trading LLC from 1968

But guess why it was nicknamed the 'Belslow'!

CG

It can't be that slow with only 11200 hours!

Either that or it's not gone far in the 42 years since built...

If the airframe hours are correct, then it's probably fresher than all but two frames in the RAF's entire transport fleet!

stop gap
 

The MOD should buy them back as a stop gap !!

Wasn't the Belfast built to transport the Chieftain / Sherman? tank but the internal fuselage width was 2" too narrow? 60,000 lbs of stressed flooring as well.

It will have another 100 hours once you get it back from the land of Oz.

calling all really old lineys...........

here comes the bus - max speed 0.1 mach

Just 100 hours?

It'd be quicker to ship it back via sea wouldn't it?

Saw the old girl at Cairns a couple of years ago, nice shiny paint job. But who would buy a museum piece ?

I think it is the end of the road for the Belslow. There was one at Manston awaiting the magic wand but it did not materialise. Some great loads, railway carriages, etc but never good enough to pay its way.
At the end of the road it was just a big fat Brittannia.

Fareastdriver you can thank that nice Mr Wilson and his cronies for that. Original design was for four jet engines and a high 'V' tail. Ooh look a 42 yr old C-17......................

Remember arriving at Bzn in 1975 and working on them as a very young Nav Inst mechanic, lovely aircraft :ok:

Similar thread on 'freight dogs'

SFFP

You old git!!:ok:

Later...MoG

Flew back from Akrotiri once, in the 60's, in a "Fastback", much more comfy than a Herk.
ISTR that there was a speedo just by the skipper's nose steering wheel.must have been of some use!:hmm:

Joking aside, I think you'll find the interior dimensions of the Belfast are almost identical to the A400 - and the A400 still won't be able to carry any main battle tank (unlike the C17)

not carrying a MBT won't be a problem.

after the SDR, we won't have any:{

So I take it when you see them throwing stores out of the back of a Belfast in flight, they are simply getting rid of the stuff that has time expired and past it's sell by date since departing ? :p

Remember sitting on the pax deck on a SCT sortie and watching the wing and the two starboard engines all doing their own thing during a practice stall. Nothing, but nothing, was moving in synchronisation with anything else!

I seem to recall that, shortly after entry to service, the Belslo carried out a non-stop AAR flight to either Singapore or OZ. On arrival the captain sent signal to MOD (or was it the War Office in those days.) "Arrived safely, no signs of scurvy on board". Bad for his career seemingly.