Boeing CH-47 Chinook has been nicknamed as the world’s fastest military helicopter. The helicopter was designed and developed by an American Rotorcraft company; Vertol and was later manufactured by Boeing Vertol also commonly known as Boeing Rotorcraft Systems.
CH-47 has been named officially the Western world’s heaviest lifting helicopter. The name Chinook in its name has been derived from the “Native American Chinook People” of the modern day residing in Washington.
The helicopter was being designed by Vertol back in 1957. It was the same time when US Army announced replacing the piston engine powered “Sikorsky CH-37 Mojave”. They were planning to replace it with a gas turbine helicopter.
CH-47F Chinook helicopter is able to load cargo by following various means.
- Via multiple doors across the fuselage system
- Wide loading ramp located at the rear side of the fuselage
- Three external ventral cargo hooks
The helicopter is able to achieve a top speed of up to 170 knots or 315 km/h. when the helicopter was first introduced for sieve in US Army it was faster than the multiple utility and attack helicopters of the army. This title is even still retained by Chinook. There had been many variants for this fast helicopter but the one that has been most substantial is the CH-47D. It was introduced in the army for service back in 1982/. The improvements in this variant helicopter are as follows.
- Upgraded engines
- Composite rotor blades
- Cockpit deign remodeled for reduction of workload
- Improved electronics and avionics systems
- Advance flight control systems
This helicopter is the one of the many that were developed in early 60’s and are still in service after 50 year.
This fast helicopter is being used by the following two countries for military purposes.
- USA
- UK
The following video of today sows this amazing helicopter in action. The helicopter is show to be used for various military purposes like transporting troops, offering paragliding services, attack practice, transporting whole military vehicle and also landing on top of an aircraft military amphibious vessel.
Watch the video down below.
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