Shorts SC.5 Belfast C.1 RAF largest aircraft at the time

In 1959, Royal Air Force issued operational requirement, ASR.371 for a heavy freighter capable of carrying a wide range of military loads over long ranges. Shorts proposed the SC.5/10 design which was based on company studies from 1950s. The project started with the designation Belfast C.1. The prototype Belfast first flew in January 1964. The production airplane was capable of maximum takeoff weight over100 tonnes. It could carry 150 troops with full equipment. The Belfast entered service with No. 53 Squadron RAF in January 1966. It was the largest aircraft that the British military had ever operated up to that time. In 1975, the reorganization of the new RAF Strike Command was to have repercussions on the RAF's Belfast fleet and ushered in the retirement of a number of aircraft types, including the Bristol Britannia and De Havilland Comet. By the end of 1976 the Belfast fleet had been retired and flown to RAF Kemble for storage.