Hi,
The following Belvederes were struck off charge and scrapped on the dates shown. Some may have been due to reaching their airframe life of 1,700hrs. Anyone know the reasons?
All concern 66 Sqn in the Far East.
XG451 struck off charge and scrapped Seletar, 13/11/67
XG456 struck off charge and scrapped, Seletar, 01/08/68
XG457 struck off charge and scrapped, Seletar, 04/05/68
XG466 struck off charge and scrapped, Seletar, 13/05/68
XG468 written off 25/01/68
XG475 scrapped at Bicester, UK. No date but sometime in 1962.
XG476 struck off charge and scrapped at Seletar, 13/06/68
Any help appreciated.
Regards,
Alex
By: Alex Crawford - 1st November 2013 at 20:04
Nice photo Robbo. I need to get down there sometime and take some walk around type photos/
Alex
By: Robbo - 1st November 2013 at 09:39
Another one was XG454 “B” that I saw at Bicester October 1961: just the damaged fuselage. It is now at the Manchester Museum I believe.
It is indeed.
Manchester Museum of Science & Industry #6572 Bristol Belvedere HC.1 XG454 by shuttleworthpix, on Flickr
By: l.garey - 1st November 2013 at 06:07
Another one was XG454 “B” that I saw at Bicester October 1961: just the damaged fuselage. It is now at the Manchester Museum I believe.
By: Alex Crawford - 31st October 2013 at 18:34
Hi,
Recently received new info so I thought I would post an update.
XG451, 456, 457 all withdrawn because of cracks or corrosion,
XG466, 476 withdrawn through reaching airframe fatigue life, 1,700hrs.
Alex
By: Alex Crawford - 20th October 2013 at 21:17
The idea at the time was to replace the Belvedere with Chinooks, so further development and orders didn’t really happen. The cancellation of the Chinook contract put paid to the Belvedere as well with the last ones being withdrawn in 1969.
Alex
By: sticky847 - 20th October 2013 at 19:23
i know the westland lynx had an airframe life of 7000 hrs, extended to 8000 after a full strip and inspection of all critical structures,i think the extension was only cos we had nothing to replace them with and to be honest we still don’t.
By: Alex Crawford - 20th October 2013 at 17:39
Hi,
Thanks for the reply Andrew, much appreciated.
The underslung load was carried on a central point. As they weren’t sure about the stress this would put on the airframe the helicopter was limited to 1,700 hrs. So some of them were scrapped when they reached this limit. I’m still looking into this at the moment so don’t have exact details.
Alex
By: J Boyle - 20th October 2013 at 17:20
The airframe of the Belvederes had a fatigue life?
The helicopters I’ve been around had a TBO or life on component times but not the airframe.
Any ex-helicopter fitters care to explain?
I’ve read that the civil Boeing Vertol 107s (civil CH-46) now used for logging have upwards of 30,000 hours on their airframes.
By: FiltonFlyer - 20th October 2013 at 13:55
Alex,
ukserials.com has the following for XG475:
“w/o 05/12/1963 when the aircraft was damaged by a fire in a starting explosion at Seletar, Singapore, returned to Westlands for repair, but not carried out and broken up for spares and produce, the remains to No.71MU Bicester dump during 05/1967 and scrapped.”
For XG468 it has:
“w/o 25/01/1968 in an unknown flying incident in the Middle East”, but then struck off charge 21/03/1969 at No.389 MU Seletar.
regards,
Andrew
By: Alex Crawford - 19th October 2013 at 20:09
Hi,
Just an update after finding some more info.
XG457 suffered an Avpin explosion on 5th Dec 1964 at Seletar. There are a number of photos showing this Belvedere on fire and the attempts made to put it out. The front was totally destroyed but the rear was used as a source of spares until scrapped.
A new entry is XG458. It was badly damaged in a flying accident on 26/06/64 and returned to the UK for repairs. Shipped out to the Far East in May 1967. Allocated to 66 Sqn in October 1967.
Looking for crew details for this accident.
Regards,
Alex
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October 18, 2013 at 10:42 pm