{"id":31029868,"date":"2026-11-03T14:54:45","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T13:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/short-belfast-sc5-raf-strategic-freighter-53-squadron-heavylift\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T14:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T13:55:07","slug":"short-belfast-sc5-raf-strategic-freighter-53-squadron-heavylift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/es\/short-belfast-sc5-raf-strategic-freighter-53-squadron-heavylift\/","title":{"rendered":"Short Belfast: The Giant RAF Freighter Britain Retired Too Soon"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\r\n\r\n<style>\r\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid 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The flaps had dropped on take-off and would not come back up. So pilots Bob Reynolds and &lsquo;Rocky&rsquo; Oliver flew the whole ferry flight in landing configuration, then put the aircraft down on the very short runway at Cosford, the shortest a Belfast had ever landed on.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>It was a fitting last trick for <em>Enceladus<\/em>, the tenth and final Short Belfast. Only ten were built. Together they served a single <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/air-forces\/united-kingdom-royal-air-force\/\">Royal Air Force<\/a> squadron for about a decade, and every one carried the name of a giant or hero of legend. When the RAF let them go, the aircraft it had thrown away turned out to be the one it kept needing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6f9;border:1px solid #e2e7ee;padding:18px 22px;margin:22px 0 26px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:700;color:#0d1117\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:18px\"><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Type:<\/strong> Short SC.5\/10 Belfast C.1, four-turboprop strategic freighter<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Builder:<\/strong> Short Brothers, Belfast<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>First flight:<\/strong> 5 January 1964, from Sydenham, Belfast<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Built:<\/strong> 10 (XR362 to XR371), no prototype<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Engines:<\/strong> 4 &times; Rolls-Royce Tyne Mk.101 turboprops, 5,730 ehp each<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Payload:<\/strong> About 78,000 lb (35 tonnes); 150 troops or a Chieftain tank<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>RAF service:<\/strong> No. 53 Squadron, 1966 to 1976<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Afterlife:<\/strong> HeavyLift flew three; XR371 <em>Enceladus<\/em> is at the RAF Museum Midlands, Cosford<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A Britannia with a whale&rsquo;s body<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>The Belfast began in the mid-1950s as a sensible idea from Short Brothers. The company was already building Bristol Britannia airliners under sub-contract in Belfast, and its chairman, Sir Matthew Slattery, wanted to reuse as much Britannia hardware as possible rather than design a freighter from scratch. The first 1957 brochure even called it the Britannic.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The RAF then raised the bar, asking to carry 30,000 lb over 3,600 nautical miles. The design kept the Britannia&rsquo;s wing and tail surfaces as its starting point, but gained a new wing centre section, four Rolls-Royce Tyne turboprops and a vast circular fuselage more than 16 ft (4.9 m) across. A contract for ten aircraft, designated Belfast C.1, was signed on 21 December 1960.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>There was no prototype. The first aircraft off the line was a production machine, and on Sunday 5 January 1964 chief test pilot Denis Tayler and a crew of six took it into the air from Shorts&rsquo; airfield at Sydenham. After a twelve-day wait for an easterly wind, so they could climb out over Belfast Lough instead of the city, they flew for 55 minutes and landed at Aldergrove.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;It was the easiest ride I have had for a very long time. The aircraft was an absolute joy to fly. She&rsquo;s a beauty.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Denis Tayler<\/strong> &mdash; Shorts chief test pilot, after the first flight, in <em>Flight International<\/em>, 9 January 1964<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The Belfast had another claim to fame from day one. It was the first aircraft designed from the outset with a full automatic &ldquo;blind landing&rdquo; system, a triplex Smiths installation that let it land itself in fog. On a freighter meant to fly in all weathers, that mattered.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tfgyg6K6_0Y\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 24px\">British Path&eacute;&rsquo;s 1964 newsreel &ldquo;Air Giant Goes Up&rdquo; on the new Short Belfast.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The biggest thing the RAF had ever flown<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>When it entered service, the Belfast was the largest aircraft the British military had ever operated. It spanned 48.4 m (158 ft 9 in), weighed up to 104 tonnes at take-off, and could lift about 78,000 lb (35 tonnes). That is well beyond the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/c-130-hercules\/\">C-130 Hercules<\/a> the RAF would soon rely on.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The hold was the point. Reached through a &ldquo;beaver tail&rdquo; ramp at the rear, it was roomy enough for two single-deck buses and for forklift trucks to work inside. It could take 150 fully equipped troops, a Chieftain tank, two Wessex helicopters or a pair of Polaris missiles.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/11\/short-belfast-xr368-theseus-53-squadron-1976.jpg\" alt=\"RAF Short Belfast Theseus of No. 53 Squadron parked on a wet apron with its name painted on the nose\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\"><em>Theseus<\/em> of No. 53 Squadron in May 1976, a few months before the fleet was retired. The name is painted under the cockpit; this aircraft later flew with HeavyLift as G-BEPS. Photo: Mike Freer \/ Touchdown-aviation, via Wikimedia Commons (GFDL 1.2)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>No. 53 Squadron re-formed as the RAF&rsquo;s first and only Belfast squadron in late 1965, and the first aircraft arrived in January 1966. After a spell at RAF Fairford, the squadron settled at <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/air-bases\/brize-norton\/\">RAF Brize Norton<\/a> in 1967.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Unusually for service aircraft, every Belfast carried a name: <em>Samson<\/em>, <em>Goliath<\/em>, <em>Pallas<\/em>, <em>Hector<\/em>, <em>Atlas<\/em>, <em>Heracles<\/em>, <em>Theseus<\/em>, <em>Spartacus<\/em>, <em>Ajax<\/em> and <em>Enceladus<\/em>. The RAF Museum explains the idea simply: the aircraft was a giant, so each one was named after a giant.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Fixing the drag<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>There was a catch. The rear fuselage was swept up and flattened underneath to give the loading ramp a gentle angle and plenty of headroom. That shape created far more drag than expected, and the early aircraft could not reach the performance Shorts had promised. Engineers had to tackle what one 1967 technical paper called &ldquo;the Belfast drag problem&rdquo;.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The answer was a redesigned rear fairing, which is credited with raising the fleet&rsquo;s cruising speed by around 40 mph. Aircraft went back to Shorts for the work: the RAF Museum&rsquo;s record shows <em>Enceladus<\/em> returning to the factory in January 1969 for drag-reduction changes and autoland fitting, then testing at the Blind Landing Experimental Unit at Bedford.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DH9TCgBoRbI\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 24px\">Ruairidh MacVeigh&rsquo;s documentary history of the Short Belfast.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Once fixed, the Belfasts went everywhere. In November 1967 two of them helped bring British troops home from Aden. In 1970 five flew to Singapore and back for Exercise Bersatu Padu, the biggest airlift exercise Air Support Command had ever run. That same summer, two Belfasts carried a dismantled Supermarine Stranraer flying boat from British Columbia to Brize Norton for the RAF Museum.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>They hauled Harriers to Arizona for hot-weather trials and, in 1973, Concorde support equipment out to South Africa for hot-and-high testing. On 23 December 1971, all ten flew together in formation over Brize Norton.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;If you were a truckee, as I was, the one airplane that you wanted to be on was the Belfast, which was an absolutely wonderful airplane. It could do things that no other airplane could do at the time, it was huge!&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Sean Maffett<\/strong> &mdash; Former RAF transport navigator, RAF Museum Stories<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Retired, then rented back<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>It did not last. After the transport force was folded into RAF Strike Command, a round of defence cuts in the mid-1970s also disposed of the Britannia and Comet fleets. The Belfast force was run down from June 1976, the aircraft were flown to RAF Kemble for storage, and No. 53 Squadron disbanded that September. <em>Enceladus<\/em> had logged about 9,229 hours.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Rolls-Royce bought several Belfasts, mainly for their Tyne engines, and scrapped most of them at Hucknall. It donated <em>Enceladus<\/em> to the museum, which is how she ended up on that flaps-down flight into Cosford.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/11\/heavylift-short-belfast-g-hlft-zurich-2001.jpg\" alt=\"HeavyLift Cargo Airlines Short Belfast G-HLFT in flight with landing gear down at Zurich in April 2001\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">HeavyLift Cargo Airlines Belfast G-HLFT, the former RAF <em>Hector<\/em>, at Zurich on 29 April 2001. Photo: Aero Icarus, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Five went to the cargo airline TAC HeavyLift in 1977. Two were kept for spares, and three, <em>Hector<\/em>, <em>Heracles<\/em> and <em>Theseus<\/em>, were reworked for civil certification and flying commercially by 1980. They became the go-to aircraft for loads nothing else in the West could carry.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>That included the Ministry of Defence. During the Falklands War in 1982, the RAF chartered Belfasts back from HeavyLift, and they flew for the British forces again in the 1991 Gulf War, carrying vehicles and helicopters too big for the Hercules. Several accounts suggest the charter bills cost more than keeping the fleet in RAF service would have.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kpiPvOjh3CM\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 24px\">Just Planes footage of a HeavyLift Belfast cargo flight from Paris to Dakar, dated 2001 in the video&rsquo;s title.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>By the 1990s, Volga-Dnepr&rsquo;s much larger <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/antonov-an-124\/\">Antonov An-124<\/a> was taking over the outsize cargo market. <em>Hector<\/em> carried on, flying in Australia from 2003 before being parked at Cairns. A 2023 effort to return it to the air was reported, but Cairns was hit by flooding from Cyclone Jasper that December, and the aircraft&rsquo;s future remains unclear.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The giant at Cosford<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p><em>Enceladus<\/em>, XR371, survives at the RAF Museum Midlands at Cosford, displayed under cover in the National Cold War Exhibition. Her working engines and propellers were removed after the 1978 ferry flight and replaced with life-expired units, and she has worn HeavyLift, Air Support Command and Transport Command colours over the years.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/11\/short-belfast-xr371-enceladus-cosford-1989.jpg\" alt=\"Short Belfast XR371 Enceladus on display at RAF Cosford in Air Support Command colours\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">XR371 <em>Enceladus<\/em>, the last Belfast built, on display at Cosford in 1989 in RAF Air Support Command colours. She is now under cover at the RAF Museum Midlands. Photo: Rob Hodgkins, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Stand beside her and you understand why the crews loved her and why the cuts still rankle. Britain built a freighter that could swallow a tank, land itself in fog and carry a dismantled flying boat across the Atlantic. Then it built only ten, retired them after a decade, and paid to rent them back.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>Sources: Flight International archive (9 January 1964), RAF Museum (XR371 individual history; collections; RAF Museum Stories), Air of Authority (No. 53 Squadron history), Aircraft Engineering (1967), Vintage Aviation News, Wikipedia (Short Belfast)<\/em><\/p>\r\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\r\n\r\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\r\n\r\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>What was the Short Belfast?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The Short Belfast was a four-turboprop strategic freighter built by Short Brothers in Belfast for the Royal Air Force. Powered by Rolls-Royce Tyne engines, it could carry about 78,000 lb, 150 troops or a Chieftain tank. When it entered service in 1966 it was the largest aircraft the British military had ever operated.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How many Short Belfasts were built?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Only ten Short Belfasts were built, serials XR362 to XR371, all for the Royal Air Force. There was no prototype: the first production aircraft made the type&rsquo;s first flight on 5 January 1964. All ten served with No. 53 Squadron until the fleet was retired in 1976.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why were the RAF Short Belfasts named?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Every RAF Short Belfast carried a name, which was unusual for service aircraft. According to the RAF Museum, the Belfast was a giant of an aircraft, so each was named after a giant. The names were Samson, Goliath, Pallas, Hector, Atlas, Heracles, Theseus, Spartacus, Ajax and Enceladus.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why did the RAF retire the Short Belfast?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The RAF retired the Short Belfast in 1976 during a round of defence cuts that also disposed of its Britannia and Comet fleets. The aircraft went into storage at RAF Kemble and No. 53 Squadron disbanded that September. The RAF later chartered Belfasts back from HeavyLift for the Falklands War and the Gulf War.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Who flew the Short Belfast after the RAF?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The cargo airline TAC HeavyLift bought five ex-RAF Short Belfasts in 1977, kept two for spares and flew three commercially from 1980. They carried outsize loads around the world, including charters for British forces during the Falklands War and the 1991 Gulf War. One former RAF Belfast later flew in Australia.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Where can I see a Short Belfast today?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The last Short Belfast built, XR371 Enceladus, is on display at the RAF Museum Midlands at Cosford, under cover in the National Cold War Exhibition. It was flown into Cosford in October 1978 with its flaps stuck down. Another Belfast, the former Hector, has been parked for years at Cairns in Australia.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was the Short Belfast?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The Short Belfast was a four-turboprop strategic freighter built by Short Brothers in Belfast for the Royal Air Force. Powered by Rolls-Royce Tyne engines, it could carry about 78,000 lb, 150 troops or a Chieftain tank. When it entered service in 1966 it was the largest aircraft the British military had ever operated.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How many Short Belfasts were built?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Only ten Short Belfasts were built, serials XR362 to XR371, all for the Royal Air Force. There was no prototype: the first production aircraft made the type\u2019s first flight on 5 January 1964. All ten served with No. 53 Squadron until the fleet was retired in 1976.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Why were the RAF Short Belfasts named?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Every RAF Short Belfast carried a name, which was unusual for service aircraft. According to the RAF Museum, the Belfast was a giant of an aircraft, so each was named after a giant. The names were Samson, Goliath, Pallas, Hector, Atlas, Heracles, Theseus, Spartacus, Ajax and Enceladus.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Why did the RAF retire the Short Belfast?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The RAF retired the Short Belfast in 1976 during a round of defence cuts that also disposed of its Britannia and Comet fleets. The aircraft went into storage at RAF Kemble and No. 53 Squadron disbanded that September. The RAF later chartered Belfasts back from HeavyLift for the Falklands War and the Gulf War.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Who flew the Short Belfast after the RAF?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The cargo airline TAC HeavyLift bought five ex-RAF Short Belfasts in 1977, kept two for spares and flew three commercially from 1980. They carried outsize loads around the world, including charters for British forces during the Falklands War and the 1991 Gulf War. One former RAF Belfast later flew in Australia.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Where can I see a Short Belfast today?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The last Short Belfast built, XR371 Enceladus, is on display at the RAF Museum Midlands at Cosford, under cover in the National Cold War Exhibition. It was flown into Cosford in October 1978 with its flaps stuck down. Another Belfast, the former Hector, has been parked for years at Cairns in Australia.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/short-sc7-skyvan-flying-shoebox\/\">Short SC.7 Skyvan: The Flying Shoebox That Refuses to Retire<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/short-sperrin-sa4-insurance-v-bomber-stacked-engines\/\">Short Sperrin: Britain's Insurance-Policy Nuclear Bomber<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/antonov-airlines-volga-dnepr-an-124-charter-salis-leipzig\/\">The Charter Business Built on Soviet Freighters<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/ilyushin-il-76-candid-soviet-airlifter-history\/\">Ilyushin Il-76: The Soviet Airlifter That Outlived the USSR<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Only ten Short Belfasts were built. The RAF named each after a giant, retired them after a decade, then chartered them back for the Falklands and the Gulf.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":31029758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665,666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31029868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Short Belfast: The RAF&#039;s Ten Giant Freighters | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Short Belfast: only ten of these four-turboprop RAF freighters were built; each was named after a giant, retired in 1976 and chartered back.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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