Bristol Belvedere

Common card · No. 445408

The Bristol Type 192 Belvedere is a British twin-engine, tandem rotor military helicopter built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It was Britain's only tandem rotor helicopter to enter production, and one of the few not built by Piasecki/Vertol, or its successor, Boeing Vertol/Boeing Rotorcraft Systems. The Belvedere was designed during the late 1950s as a derivative of the abortive Bristol Type 173. Although the type was solely procured by the Royal Air Force (RAF), its design had been heavily shaped by earlier work performed for the Royal Navy, which resulted in its unusually tall forward undercarriage that somewhat complicated cabin entrance/egress. The two rotors were synchronised, which permitted flight with only a single operational engine if required. The controls and instrumentation was designed to be compatible with night time operations. While the initial prototype, which performed its maiden flight on 5 July 1958, were equipped with wooden rotor blades, production units were...

Read on Wikipedia · Image User:Arpingstone, Public domain