So after posting my VC10 derivative Belfast alternative, I started thinking again about the way the British ministerial mindset works (I've had a few professional run-ins with the civil service in the past) and realised that the Belfast would probably have been ordered come hell or high water, for purely political reasons. I also started thinking about the alternate freighter programme for a freighter to bypass the Middle East, but more on that later. So, if the Ministries of Aviation and Supply would have ordered the Belfast regardless of what the War Office said, why not improve the Belfast?
Simple idea here, the Army specified the need to airlift a 57-ton Conqueror ARV and Shorts modified the SC5 to carry such a load. The fuselage was strengthened and stretched to accommodate the same weight in other cargo, the wing redesigned to increase span, area and fuel stowage, and the engines replaced with (fictitious) Bristol Tartarus turboprops, which was based on the Olympus and eventually gave rise to the Marine Olympus a few years later.