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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0209.PDF
FLIGHT International, 8 February 1962 211 IN THE AIR WESTLAND BELVEDERE (Two Napier Gazelle Mk 101 giving 1,450 s.h.p. for one hour or 1,650 t.h.p. for 2|min) Fuselage length, 54ft 4in; rotor diameter, 48ft 11 in; rotor disc area, 3,720 sq ft; overall length, 89ft 9in; empty weight, 11,3501b; normal gross weight, I9,000lb; maximum internal load, 6,0001b; maximum slung load, 6,0001b: normal fuel capacity, 560 gal; overload tank age, 520 gal. Performance Maximum cruising speed, I20kt; best rate of climb, 850ft/min; vertical climb, 440ft/min; hovering ceilings with and without ground effect, 8,500ft and 5,700ft; service ceiling, 12,000ft; range with standard tankage, 400nm; range with auxiliary tankage, 680nm. By Mark Lambert: Number 155 of the series Westland Belvedere THE RAF has now gained a good deal of experience with the Westland Belvedere HC.l, the largest helicopter so far to enter British service. No 66 Sqn is operational and preparing to move to the Far East, No 72 Sqn is forming and others will follow as ths aircraft come off the line at Westland's Bristol division at Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. In order to see what this transport helicopter is like to handle I recently went to Odiham, headquarters of No 38 Group, and was given some dual instruction in a Belvedere of 66 Sqn. The biggest helicopters I had flown previously were the Kaman Huskie, Bell 204 and Alouette III, all of which have constant-speeding transmissions, and are still light enough to have high manoeuvrability. The Raman was a splendid 'bus, which chugged around happDy and sedately with tab controls for its intermeshing "egg-beater" rotors and aerodynamic stabiliza tion. The Bell 204, with its stabilizer bar, felt slightly less responsive but rather more stable. The Alouette followed the American fully powered, relatively unstable pattern which allows rapid control response and very light stick forces. The Belvedere does not constant-speed, but has fully powered controls with pneumatic feel. It weighs two or three times as much as the other three, but is relatively fast and carries aerodynamic stabilizers. In my fairly limited helicopter experience, it is also unique in having tandem main rotors which, among other attributes, largely eliminate the torque-compensation problem. Having started life as a piston-engined, civil transport and been transmuted into a Naval attack helicopter and thence into an RAF transport, the Belvedere carries traces of its chequered history in its stalky under carriage (for front loading of torpedoes), high main-door sill and narrow cabin bracketed by the engines. A more recent design would carry the engines high in the flanks and provide rear-loading facilities. Nevertheless, the Belvedere is the biggest and most capable helicopter the RAF has yet received—and the fastest and furthest- ranging. One might stick one's neck out and say that it has tradi tional English handling, Sweet and pure and simple; and that the boldest feature is the provision of duplicated powered controls with no manual reversion (control runs are stressed for manual control, but not used as such). Single-engined capability is remarkable and the failure of one engine in forward flight can be detected only by the change in sound and the "splitting" of the twin needles on the torque gauge. The first few Belvederes were pre-production versions with manual controls, wooden rotor blades and a rather different tail- plane. Tne machines now at Odiham have metal rotor blades, fully powered controls, the new compound-anhedral tailplane, simplified engine air intakes, low-pressure tyres, sliding doors for the main 'FLIGHT International" photographs
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