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The Belfast was developed to meet a Royal Air Force requirement for a freighter capable of carrying a wide range of military loads over long ranges. The military loads envisaged included artillery, more than 200 troops, helicopters, and guided missiles. Shorts' design was based on studies they had worked on in the late 1950s and the project started as the SC.5/10 in February 1959. From that design, the prototype Belfast first flew on 5 January 1964.

The Belfast was notable for being only the second aircraft type to be built equipped with autoland blind landing equipment.

To meet the demands of the specification the Belfast used a high wing carrying four Rolls-Royce Tyne turboprops. The cargo deck, 64 ft long in a fuselage over 18 feet in diameter (roomy enough for two single deck buses), was reached through a "beaver tail" with rear loading doors and integral ramp. The main undercarriage was two 8-wheel bogies and a 2-wheel nose. The Belfast was capable of a maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of over 220,500 lb (100 tonnes) but still less than the contemporaneous 250-tonne MTOW Antonov An-22 and the 128-tonne MTOW Douglas C-133 Cargomaster. It could carry 150 troops with full equipment, or a Chieftain tank or two Westland Wessex helicopters.

The original RAF requirement had foreseen a fleet of 30 aircraft, but this number was to be significantly curtailed as a result of the Sterling Crisis of 1965. The United Kingdom government needed to gain support for its loan application to the International Monetary Fund, which the United States provided. However, one of the alleged clauses for this support was that the RAF purchase Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft. With a surplus of airlifting capabilities the original order was reduced to 10. The Belfast entered service with No. 53 Squadron RAF in January 1966 based at RAF Fairford. By May the following year they had been repositioned at RAF Brize Norton.

All 10 Belfast's were named:

Following entry to RAF service it became apparent that a major drag problem was preventing the initial five aircraft attaining Short’s desired performance figures. Indeed the suction drag on the tail and rear fuselage was so severe that the RAF nicknamed the aircraft ‘The Dragmaster’ Retrospective modifications and testing were carried out, particularly on aircraft SH1818 (which was at the time perfecting the RAF’s requirement for CAT 3 automated landings at RAE Bedford), and a new rear fairing was incorporated improving the fleet’s cruising speed by 40mph.

The reorganisation of the newly formed Strike Command was to have repercussions of the RAF’s Belfast fleet and ushered in the retirement of a number of aircraft types including the Bristol Britannia and De Havilland Comet in 1975. By the end of 1976 the Belfast fleet had been retired and flown to RAF Kemble for storage.

TAC Heavylift then purchased 5 of them for commercial use in 1977, and operated three of them from 1980 after they had received work so they could be certificated to civil standards. Ironically, some of them were later chartered during the Falklands war, with some sources suggesting that this cost more than keeping all the aircraft in RAF service until the 1990s.

The type entered something of a hiatus after being retired from TAC Heavylift service and several were parked at Southend Airport for a number of years until one aircraft was refurbished and flown to Australia in 2003. This aircraft is still flying (2007) in Australia for HeavyLift Cargo Airlines; it is often clearly visible parked on the General Aviation side of Cairns International Airport in Queensland, in company with one or two of the company's Boeing 727s. A second, G-BEPS (SH1822), is to join her in Australia following a refurbishment at Southend Airport.

	The last production Belfast, XR371, preserved as an exhibit at RAF Museum Cosford
	If anyone knows what the demonstration load is, please let me know

General characteristics

Crew: 5- Pilot, Co-Pilot, Engineer, Navigator and Load Master
Capacity: 11,750 cu. ft.
Payload: 80,000 lb (36,288 kg)
Length: 136 ft 5 in (41.70 m)
Wingspan: 158 ft 10 in (48.1 m)
Height: 47 ft (14.33 m)
Wing area: 2,466 ft² (229.1 m²)
Empty weight: 130,000 lb (59,020 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 230,000 lb (104,300 kg)
Power plant: 4× Rolls-Royce Tyne R.Ty.12, Mk. 101 turboprops, Hawker Siddeley Dynamics 4/7000/fully-feathering air screws of 16 ft. diam., 5,730 ehp (4,270 kW) each
Cruise speed: 358 mph (576 km/h)
Range: 5,200 miles (8,368 km) with capacity fuel load of 80,720 lb
Service ceiling 30,000 ft (9,100 m)
Rate of climb: 1,060 ft/min (323 m/min)
Range with maximum payload: 970 miles (1,560 km)

	Spartacus - XR369, sold as G-BEPL then scrapped
	Originally Hector, XR365, sold as G-HLFT then as 9L-LDQ operating with HeavyLift Cargo Airlines, now RP-C8020. The Webmaster flew around the world on her in 1973