The heavy-lift helicopter that paved the way for the Chinook
The "daddy" of the heavy-lift military helicopter is undoubtedly the Chinook, but it was two decades before its British introduction that the RAF took delivery of its first tandem-rotor aircraft – the Bristol Belvedere.
Based on the Bristol Type 173 civilian helicopter that first flew in 1952, both the Royal Navy and the Canadian Navy registered an interest in acquiring the aircraft. However, when these projects were cancelled the RAF stepped in, leading to the development of the Type 192 Belvedere.
Circa 1958 cutaway with numbered parts
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A prototype, XG447, was developed with tandem wooden rotor blades and an upward-opening main passenger and cockpit door. It first took off on 5 July 1958 from Oldmixon in Weston-super-Mare, the home of the helicopter division of the Bristol Aeroplane Company.
A range of modifications followed, with the wooden blades replaced by all-metal four-bladed units to improve aircraft control, and sliding doors replacing the upward-opening devices, which had a habit of closing inadvertently due to the huge downwash generated by the rotors.
There were 26 of the twin Napier Gazelle-engine Belvederes built. As the RAF’s first "heavy-lift" helicopter, it was able to carry 18 fully equipped troops with a load capacity of 6,000 lb. The two rotors were linked by a transmission that ensured they were synchronised to prevent blade collision. The aircraft was able to operate on only one engine in the event of an emergency, as the working engine was capable of generating double its usual power to compensate and drive both sets of rotors.
The dispersal of the three-man crew – two in the cockpit and one in the fuselage – was problematic due to the front engine location immediately behind the cockpit. This meant that access to the fuselage was via a curving, narrow gangway, so the two pilots had no easy way of reaching the third crew member.
In June 1960, one of the Type 192 prototypes, XG452, set a speed record of 130 mph on a flight between Gatwick and Luqa in Malta, on its way to Idris in Libya for trials in extreme weather. A single overload fuel tank was fitted for the journey, with the longest stage involving 475 nautical miles (around 550 land-measured miles). The aircraft returned to the UK via Le Bourget-du-Lac, where high-altitude trials were carried out in the French Alps, before continuing its work at Boscombe Down.
Back at home, the Belvedere arrived at RAF Odiham ahead of beginning operational duty. The Trials Unit was able to exploit the impressive lifting capacity of the new aircraft with a number of items carried, underslung beneath the fuselage. Among the military equipment lifted was a fully laden Land Rover and trailer, picked up by the central external hook, and also an MGR-1 "Honest John" battlefield missile, with the new addition to the RAF ranks showing a range of transport abilities.
The Trials Unit reformed as No. 66 Squadron in 1961, bringing operational deployment for the new aircraft across the globe. No. 66 was joined by Nos. 27 and 72 as Belvedere squadrons.
In April 1962, six Belvederes were crated up for transfer by ship to Singapore. No. 66 Squadron took delivery at RAF Seletar, using their new additions for troop transport, ferrying supplies around the region, and performing jungle and air-sea rescues across Malaysia, earning the nickname of the "Flying Longhouse" from local tribespeople.
But it wasn’t just the Far East where the aircraft was deployed; operations from German RAF stations were also carried out using the new helicopter, and it was near Gütersloh where the first Belvedere tragedy struck. On 30 July 1962, three Belvederes from No. 72 Squadron took off on a routine flight out of RAF Gütersloh. One of the aircraft, XG465, suffered an engine failure soon after leaving the station. One of the rotor blades broke and sheared into the fuselage of the aircraft, causing the helicopter to crash into a field near Harsewinkel, around ten miles from Gütersloh. All six on board were killed, and all Belvederes were grounded for several months while an investigation into the accident was carried out.
RAF Westland 1962 Belvedere suspended ladder
The aircraft in question had been in the news three months before the crash, lifting the spire onto the roof of the newly built Coventry Cathedral, which replaced the old building destroyed during World War Two.
Later in 1962, three of the aircraft based at Seletar were dispatched on an 800-mile staged flight to Borneo to support forces attempting to quell a revolt, later providing disaster relief air drops when floods hit the Kota Belud area of the island. Further tragedy struck on 5 May 1963, when a fully laden 66 Squadron Belvedere, XG473, crashed near the village of Long Merarap in the Trusan Valley, killing all nine on board.
While No. 72 Squadron exchanged its Belvederes for Westland Wessexes in August 1964, the aircraft continued its deployment in the Far East for the next five years until No. 66 Squadron was disbanded at Seletar on 20 March 1969. A disbandment parade saw six howitzers, deployed by the Belvederes, fire a salute to mark the occasion.
Around nine of the remaining Belvederes were scrapped at Seletar, now in Singapore, while a number were shipped home—including XG474 aboard HMS Albion, which is now on display at the RAF Museum in Hendon. Fittingly, the other remaining examples are located at the Helicopter Museum in Weston-super-Mare, a stone’s throw from where the Belvederes were built.
Despite the realization of the need to utilize the lifting capacity of a tandem-rotor helicopter, it would be another 11 years after the Belvedere was withdrawn from service that the first Chinook arrived for RAF trials. Military and government defence chiefs knew it was the obvious replacement for the Belvedere, and in March 1967 an order was placed for 15 Chinooks. However, it was cancelled in November 1967 due to cuts in defence expenditure, only to be resurrected and then cancelled again in 1971.
It wasn’t until 1978 that the MoD announced the purchase of 33 Chinooks. No. 18 Squadron reformed at Odiham in August 1981 as the RAF’s first frontline Chinook squadron.
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