Short Belfast Status - Cairns Airport - Updated to April 2018

Read the forum code of contact

Member for

19 years 2 months

Posts: 153

Short Belfast - photographed at Cairns Airport (North Queensland, Australia) a week ago - 23 Sep 2014. Still intact, and with auxiliary power supplied.

Regards,
...geoff

Attachments
Original post

Member for

16 years 5 months

Posts: 5,999

Thanks for those. Good to see she is still well cared for!

Rob

Member for

14 years

Posts: 4,996

Is she a flyer ?

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 3,183

I certainly hope so! In all-white, the Belslow is just crying out to be named Moby Dick, isn't it?

Adrian

Member for

19 years 8 months

Posts: 525

Tyres look a little "square" on the bottoms! I don't think she's moved an inch for quite some time...

Member for

16 years

Posts: 353

Thanks for sharing Geoff. Would love to see her resurected. My entire Belfast live experince is about 8 seconds long. I caught one on short final while driving near an airport in Ohio, USA (think it was Cleveland), late 90's. Mrs. Sandiego89 was not as impressed and said I should focus on the road.

Member for

10 years 2 months

Posts: 463

I do hope she finds her way back to Britain one day, even if it seems unlikely. Nice though it is to have a Belfast under cover at Cosford, it would be good to have another one to admire. If only some enterprising cargo company in the UK would take her on :)

Member for

9 years 10 months

Posts: 22

Do we know how many are left around the world ?

Member for

18 years 10 months

Posts: 3,614

Yes - 2.

There were only 10 built - here are their names and fates:

Samson - RAF Serial XR362 (used registration G-ASKE for overseas test flight), sold as G-BEPE then scrapped
Goliath - RAF Serial XR363, sold as G-OHCA then scrapped
Pallas - RAF Serial XR364, sold as scrap to Rolls-Royce who recovered the Tyne engines
Hector - RAF Serial XR365, sold as G-HLFT then as 9L-LDQ operating with HeavyLift Cargo Airlines, now RP-C8020 (see images above)
Atlas - RAF Serial XR366, sold to RR for engines
Heracles - RAF Serial XR367 - sold as G-BFYU then scrapped
Theseus - RAF Serial XR368, sold as G-BEPS then in storage at Southend Airport - Began being broken up 22/Oct/2008
Spartacus - RAF Serial XR369, sold as G-BEPL then scrapped
Ajax - RAF Serial XR370, sold to RR for engines
Enceladus - RAF Serial XR371, preserved as an exhibit at RAF Museum Cosford

Member for

14 years 10 months

Posts: 40

When I saw her...probably five months ago...they had work stands up, paying attention to the port outboard engine.
The cargo ramp was down as well.

Member for

14 years

Posts: 4,996

I wonder what RR have done with the engines ?

Member for

11 years 10 months

Posts: 635

Presumably it was years ago that they recovered the engines. Was there a market for Tyne aero engines at that time? Aren't there also a lot of Tyne industrial / marine engines around? (as to your actual question - I don't know).

Member for

15 years 1 month

Posts: 261

Breguet Atlantic and Transall c-160 both use Tynes.

M

Member for

15 years 9 months

Posts: 652

The Vanguard and Belfast used Tynes of a similar kind and spares were interchangeable

The Tynes of the Atlantique, CL-44 and Transall are of a different kind and are no use spares wise for the above two types.

Member for

20 years 8 months

Posts: 8,505

So swap the complete engine then.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 16,832

And then there was one....

I received news today that Short SC-5 Belfast C1, XR365, [G-HLFT, RP-C8020] is to be cut up at Cairns airport tomorrow, 28-2-17

From Facebook

Moggy

Member for

14 years

Posts: 1,788

...or put another way, a 10% survival rate. Better than some (to try and put a positive spin on a cr@ppy piece of news).

Member for

20 years 4 months

Posts: 1,713

Sad news, but inevitable in a way. And she's had a good run I'd say.

Member for

16 years 5 months

Posts: 5,999

Yes it's very sad news indeed. I was genuinely concerned for its future beyond its service career even when it left these shores as a flyer many years ago.

In my opinion we should never be down to a single example of any aircraft type in preservation, it's just too risky, but as I'm not in a position to effectively alter that (as regards the Belfast anyway) then I have to be grateful for the one example that we do have!

Rob

Member for

18 years

Posts: 1,227

In my opinion we should never be down to a single example of any aircraft type in preservation, it's just too risky,

Well, it all comes down to having enough money I suppose.

But indeed, there are genuine risks.

For example, see this photo page of the victims of the 1990 Le Bourget Dugny museum storage area fire:
http://www.pyperpote.tonsite.biz/pages/incendie_des_reserves_17_mai_1990pag.html

Member for

11 years

Posts: 56

There you go if its not an american type no interest in saving it.