CH-47 Chinook
The Boeing CH-47 Chinook is the West's premier heavy-lift tandem-rotor helicopter, in continuous service since 1962 — moving troops, artillery, and cargo across every major U.S. conflict and fielded by more than a dozen allies.
The West's premier heavy-lift tandem-rotor helicopter — continuously in service since 1962 and a fixture of troop, artillery, and cargo movement across every major U.S. conflict.
Overview
The Boeing CH-47 Chinook is a twin-engine, tandem-rotor heavy-lift transport helicopter that has anchored U.S. and allied medium-to-heavy vertical lift for over six decades. A single airframe can carry up to 55 troops or lift an M777 howitzer beneath its three cargo hooks, making it indispensable for air-assault, artillery displacement, battlefield resupply, and special operations. The current production standard, the CH-47F Block II, combines a reinforced airframe, uprated Honeywell T55 engines, and a modern digital cockpit to deliver a 24.5-t max takeoff weight and a mission radius of about 306 km. The type is flown by the U.S. Army, U.S. Special Operations Command (as the MH-47G), and more than a dozen export customers.
Development
Boeing (then Vertol) flew the prototype YCH-47A for the first time in September 1961, and the type entered U.S. Army service the following year as the CH-47A GlobalMilitary. Vietnam-era airframes proved the tandem-rotor formula, and the helicopter was progressively upgraded through the CH-47D (new engines, composite rotor blades, improved transmission) during the 1980s. The CH-47F, introduced around 2007, brought a Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS) digital cockpit, a new monolithic airframe, and the T55-GA-714A engine; the current Block II further increases max gross weight to 24,494 kg and adds an advanced digital automatic flight control system (DAFCS) Airforce Technology. The special-operations MH-47G variant adds a terrain-following radar, aerial refueling probe, and additional defensive aids.
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