bristol Belvedere

The Bristol Type 192 was a development of the unsuccessful Type 173, designed in response to an RAF requirement for a general purpose, land based, heavy lift helicopter. It first flew on 5 Jul 1958 at Filton with tandem wooden rotor blades, a completely manual control system and a castored, fixed quadricycle undercarriage.

From the fifth airframe, the rotors fitted were all-metal, 4 bladed units. Production model controls and instruments allowed night operations and a true single engine-out flight, if one of the 1465hp Napier Gazelle engines failed. The Belvedere could take 30 seated passengers or 6000lb (2700kg) of internal freight. An external freight hook was fitted, allowing a 5250lb (2380kg) load to be underslung.