Boeing CH-47 Chinook

Boeing · United States · first flew 1961 · helicopter

The Boeing CH-47 Chinook is a heavy-lift tandem-rotor transport helicopter, distinctive for having two large counter-rotating rotors and no tail rotor at all.

Recognition (WEFT)

W — WingsHigh-mounted, rotary
E — Engines2 × turboshaft, fuselage-mounted
F — FuselageLong boxy fuselage with rear loading ramp
T — TailNo tailplane

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Spot it by:

Nothing else looks like it: two huge overlapping rotor discs at each end of a long boxy fuselage, with no tail rotor. Note the upswept rear with its loading ramp, the engines flanking the rear pylon and the four-legged undercarriage beneath the fuselage.

Specifications

Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.

History

First flown on 21 September 1961, the Chinook entered US Army service in 1962 and proved itself in Vietnam carrying troops, artillery and supplies. Its tandem-rotor layout dispenses with an anti-torque tail rotor, devoting all engine power to lift, and the design has been continuously updated for over sixty years. It remains in production, making it one of the longest-serving military aircraft in history.

Variants

Successive models ran from the early CH-47A through the CH-47C and the widely-used CH-47D, to the modern digital-cockpit CH-47F and the special-forces MH-47G with its refuelling probe and terrain-following radar. The RAF operates a heavily modified British standard, latterly upgrading to the H47 (Extended Range) version.

Where you'll see it

The RAF's Chinook force is based at RAF Odiham in Hampshire, flying with Nos. 7, 18 and 27 Squadrons in support of British Army operations at home and abroad. Their unmistakable twin-rotor 'wokka-wokka' beat is a familiar sound over Salisbury Plain and southern England, and they are regular performers at UK air shows.

In depth

The tandem-rotor configuration that defines the Chinook was not a novelty when Vertol designed it. Frank Piasecki's HRP 'Flying Banana' of the late 1940s had already proven the concept, and the H-21 that followed was actually flying in the Korean War. What the Vertol (later Boeing Vertol) HC-1B — the direct Chinook ancestor — brought was a dramatic increase in size, power, and structural integration. By mounting both rotors on a single shared transmission, the tandem layout eliminated the anti-torque penalty of a tail rotor entirely; on a conventional helicopter roughly ten percent of engine power is consumed by the tail rotor, doing nothing for lift. In a Chinook every shaft-horsepower goes to the rotors.

The forward and aft rotors overlap by roughly a third of their diameter and counter-rotate, so their torques cancel. This means the aircraft can carry underslung loads directly on the centreline without the pendulum swings that plague single-rotor machines. The triple-hook cargo system — with a fore, centre and aft hook — lets a Chinook carry awkward loads such as a field gun with its barrel on one hook and its trails on another, balanced for level flight.

The Chinook entered US Army service in time for Vietnam, and it was there that the type's ceiling-shattering capability was proven. CH-47s routinely recovered downed aircraft, including UH-1 Hueys, from terrain where no recovery vehicle could operate. At 'Hamburger Hill' (Battle of Dong Ap Bia, May 1969), Chinooks shuttled artillery and ammunition to ridgeline positions throughout a ten-day assault. A single aircraft once airlifted a downed A-1 Skyraider, a World War II-era propeller attack aircraft, from a jungle ridge to a maintenance base — a load that no other contemporary helicopter could have managed.

British Chinooks arrived in 1980 and immediately became the backbone of heavy-lift for the British Army. In the 1982 Falklands conflict, three of the four RAF Chinooks sent south were lost when the container ship Atlantic Conveyor was hit by an Exocet missile on 25 May. The sole surviving aircraft, ZA718 (nicknamed 'Bravo November'), flew every remaining heavy-lift sortie for the land campaign. On its busiest day it lifted 1,500 troops in a single day — a load normally requiring eight to ten helicopter sorties spread across an entire lift squadron. It once carried 81 soldiers in a single internal lift, vastly exceeding the certified limit, in a casualty-evacuation emergency. ZA718 survived the war and is preserved at the RAF Museum Cosford, where it carries its original combat role markings.

In Afghanistan, RAF Chinooks flew more hours in combat than any other UK aircraft type during the ISAF campaign. Operating from Kandahar and Camp Bastion between 2006 and 2014, they extracted casualties under fire, delivered Special Forces, and kept forward operating bases supplied across terrain where ground vehicles could not reach. Aircrew flew with night-vision goggles at extreme low level to avoid man-portable missiles, a demanding regime that contributed to a genuinely exceptional safety record given the operational intensity.

The Chinook's nearest contemporary rival in the heavy-lift tandem-rotor category is the Russian Mil Mi-26, which dwarfs it — the Mi-26 can lift roughly 20 tonnes externally versus the Chinook's 12.7 tonnes. But the Mi-26 is a single-rotor design of enormous size, not a tandem. Among tandem designs, Piasecki (now PiaseckiAircraft) continues to explore tandem configurations, but no competitor has entered production at comparable scale. The Chinook's unique position means it is likely to remain in service with the British Army well into the 2040s under the H-47 Extended Range programme.

For spotters, RAF Odiham in Hampshire is the definitive Chinook location in the UK. The aircraft also train over Salisbury Plain, the Brecon Beacons, and the Scottish Highlands. A useful piece of identification trivia: the rear rotor of a Chinook rotates clockwise when viewed from above; the forward rotor rotates anticlockwise. When you see one from below at an angle, the rotor tips on the near side of each disc move toward the nose — so near-side blade tip of the rear rotor moves forward and near-side blade tip of the forward rotor moves rearward. This counter-rotation is visible in slow-shutter photographs as opposing blade sweep directions.

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