BELVEDERE GUNSHIP...THE "BRISTOL FIGHTER"

[Rheged]

The Belvedere Gunship.......the "Bristol Fighter"


In 1961, during initial trials of the Bristol Belvedere at the "Belvedere Trials Unit" at RAF Odiham, Fleet Air Arm exchange pilot LtCdr Alan Black was responsible for making  the proposal that overcame the difficulty of disembarking troops under fire from the helicopter. Having spent some time as second in command of a naval air stores unit  that  still held 25lb and 50lb Cooper bombs left over from an RNAS attack on the harbour facilities at Zeebrugge, he suggested fitting these on simple bomb shackles under the Belvedere. There was plenty of clearance; the Belvedere had been proposed as a torpedo carrying unit of RN and RCN so space for armourers to work was not an issue. The Odiham fitters also produced a forward firing pair of podded .303 machine guns that were installed under XG448 for trials purposes.  Tests on Salisbury Plain proved the concept was workable, and XG450 was modified by Bristol to have a small hatch fitted at the  starboard rear end of the fuselage.  This accommodated two elderly .303 Vickers machine guns on a swivel mount, whilst the main hatch had installed a 20mm Oerlikon .......formerly used as a light AA gun on HMS Howe. Bristol were able to design a triple .303 replaceable gun pack that could be installed under the helicopter nose.  This made C of G calculations more complex, but with carefully calculated ballast weights and some slight movement of fuel tanks the concept seemed viable.

A further eight of these  Belvedere H(GA)2 s were built, and used to great effect in the Radfan campaign in Aden, and in Borneo.  The high forward ground clearance of the machine (the lower lip of the forward hatch was 4 feet off the ground) meant that re-embarking troops under fire was normally a difficult undertaking. With an armed Belvedere accompanying the troop carriers, suppressive fire ....a Vickers and Oerlikon broadside... made the task less hazardous.

It was in Aden that an army officer described the Belvedere as "looking like a Bakerloo line carriage that had inadvertently become airborne".  The crews of 66 Squadron took this comment to heart, and all of their  troop carrying"carriages" were named after London Underground Stations. The more pugnacious gunships, known to their crews as "Bristol Fighters" were named for stations on the Glasgow underground system.

It was in Borneo in late 1968 that the H(GA)2 gunships "Govan" and "Kelvinhall", escorting the HC1 carriages "Mornington Crescent", "Knightsbridge", "Sloane Square" and "Bayswater" captured or destroyed three regular Indonesian Army operating bases in Brunei and  airlifted out two complete Gurkha offensive patrols in operation "Routemaster".

The last Belvederes were withdrawn from service in 1970, but over a nine year period they had validated the concept that was later taken up by the US armed forces in Vietnam  ........"Airborne Cavalry"

None of the Belvedere H(GA)2 airframes survive, but the fuselage of XG464 has recently been recovered in a reasonable state from Foulness, and will be restored and displayed  as a "Bristol Fighter" H(GA)2 at  the Helicopter Museum, Weston-Super-Mare when this excellent organisation has finished their restoration of HC1 XG452 .

Alan Black retired from the Navy as a rear Admiral, having been involved in the Harrier and Sea Harrier development programme, he currently lives in south Shropshire, having earned an enviable  reputation as a painter of wildflower watercolour miniatures.

[/Fellow Whiffers are invited to modify, add to , or even convert into styrene the material shown here


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Belvedere

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bristol+belvedere&biw=1093&bih=498&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjixfbNg-HLAhWKuxQKHbvDDHMQ_AUIBygC&dpr=1.25

[sandiego89]

A bit like this perhaps:  

rocket pod, window guns, forward firing guns on the starboard side, and some bombs hung from the old life raft pods.  

Sorry for the poor image:



Ammo chutes feeding the twin guns coming out from the cargo door.  



full build from 2014 here:  http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,38709.0/highlight,belvedere+gunship.html

-Dave

[Rheged]

Yes, that was exactly what I had in mind!!

[NARSES2]

Great story 

I'm not surprised they still had some Cooper Bombs in storage after being told of some of the bits of kit that have been found in old steel works when they have been closed down. The basic premise was that if you didn't need it then just leave it laying in the corner until you did. The problem was that by the time you did need it you had forgotten you had it 

[zenrat]

Great story 

I'm not surprised they still had some Cooper Bombs in storage after being told of some of the bits of kit that have been found in old steel works when they have been closed down. The basic premise was that if you didn't need it then just leave it laying in the corner until you did. The problem was that by the time you did need it you had forgotten you had it 

British Rail used the same principle.  I once spent a fascinating morning clambering over old rolling stock in Eastleigh yard with the last man on the railway qualified to hump shunt with steam.  The elephant wagons have stuck in my mind most.  Built to carry elephants back when travelling circuses still had animals they ended their days carrying large cable drums.

[Captain Canada]

Great stuff. Nice to see the build again. A kit of an aero I have always wanted to build. I think I have one in the stash as well !

[sandiego89]

Great stuff. Nice to see the build again. A kit of an aero I have always wanted to build. I think I have one in the stash as well !

The kit shows its age when compared to modern kits, and the glass is quite thick and the whole front end is a clear piece, landing gear a bit fussy and rivets galore.  But a fun, easy build of a very charismatic helo.

-Dave   

[NARSES2]

Great story 

I'm not surprised they still had some Cooper Bombs in storage after being told of some of the bits of kit that have been found in old steel works when they have been closed down. The basic premise was that if you didn't need it then just leave it laying in the corner until you did. The problem was that by the time you did need it you had forgotten you had it 

British Rail used the same principle.  I once spent a fascinating morning clambering over old rolling stock in Eastleigh yard with the last man on the railway qualified to hump shunt with steam.  The elephant wagons have stuck in my mind most.  Built to carry elephants back when travelling circuses still had animals they ended their days carrying large cable drums.

Good old days of British Rail - dad was a 30 odd year man with them. Spent some great moments as a kid on footplates and the like. Health and Safety would have a fit nowadays. I reckon I've still got some BR Green paint in the shed 

Another thread on site has me thinking of a Belvedere with a Molins Gun fitted ? Make a nasty mess of all those junks being used by coastal infiltrators out East 

[PR19_Kit]

British Rail used the same principle.  I once spent a fascinating morning clambering over old rolling stock in Eastleigh yard with the last man on the railway qualified to hump shunt with steam.  The elephant wagons have stuck in my mind most.  Built to carry elephants back when travelling circuses still had animals they ended their days carrying large cable drums.

Good old days of British Rail - dad was a 30 odd year man with them. Spent some great moments as a kid on footplates and the like. Health and Safety would have a fit nowadays. I reckon I've still got some BR Green paint in the shed 

I could relate a tale or two about BR's policy on bits and pieces too.

They even did it with whole locomotives, the Railway Technical Centre Yard in the '70s was the original source for many of today's preserved diesels.

[Weaver]

Great stuff. Nice to see the build again. A kit of an aero I have always wanted to build. I think I have one in the stash as well !

The kit shows its age when compared to modern kits, and the glass is quite thick and the whole front end is a clear piece, landing gear a bit fussy and rivets galore.  But a fun, easy build of a very charismatic helo.

-Dave  

Plus a couple of other things:

1. The kit represents a prototype. Production aircraft had different tail fins, door and intakes (and landing gear?). Not hard to modify, but worth knowing about:

Prototypes: vertical endplate fins. Production: extra anhedral surfaces
Prototypes: upwards-opening door with integral winch. Production: sliding door with swing-out winch
Prototypes: curved panel intake covers. Production: mesh cage intake covers

2. There's an intractable problem with the front lower glazing (in front of the pilots' feet). On the real aircraft, it was one piece of polycarbonate with no frames at all, but because Airfix moulded the cockpit in two halves, you're left with a seam running down the middle of it, and because it's clear, there's nothing you can do to fix it.

[sandiego89]

Weaver, that was a great link and tips you provided me during the build to show the differences between the prototype and the production versions.  It helped a lot.  I did the mods to the tail and made the door a sliding door, with a scratched up a winch.  I also swapped out the tiny kit tires with harrier tires, and gave a bit of interior to see the through the open door.  Out of the box there is no interior at all.  I did not bother with the intake mods. Yes the glazing is a tough dilema.

A hint of the mods (most in white), with the white styrene added to the fins, a white floor, the sliding door, winch and door tracks, and the big gaping hold up front where the glazing will go (and not meet up too well)  Note the glass is very thick.    



Out of the box:



-Dave

[PR19_Kit]

Maintrack used to do a resin/vacform conversion for the Airfix Belvedere to more accurately portray the production aircraft, (I have on in The Loft) and it had a one piece clear vacform canopy which got round the cursed seam business.

Whirlybird may still do that conversion as they took most of the Maintrack stuff, but sadly their prices are eye-watering. 

[Gondor]

I have one of those conversions along with a copy of an article on the conversion being carried out. From what I remember there was not a lot of detail in the conversion set.

Gondor