The World’s Most Iconic Helicopter | CH-47 Chinook

Video from the channel Sam Eckholm about Boeing CH-47 Chinook, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 12:33. Language: English. Video type: Onboard.

A tour of a CH-47 Chinook from the Illinois Army National Guard. It covers the exterior, the cargo hold and the flight deck, with two guides: Sergeant Josh Biagioni, a flight engineer, and Chief Warrant Officer Michael Heuer, who has been flying Chinooks for nearly 20 years. The tour ends with a training flight featuring instrument work in the area, low-level flying over rivers and tight turns before landing.

The fuselage is 52 feet long. The two Honeywell T55 turboshaft engines each deliver about 5,000 shaft horsepower, 150% more than the original model, with an upgrade underway to reach 6,000. The flight engineer handles maintenance and all cargo, whether internal or slung. He shows the floor hatch used to hook up external loads, the seats for 33 soldiers, and the extended-range fuel system (ERFS) tanks, which can also be used to refuel other aircraft. There are three cargo hooks under the fuselage. In the cockpit you can see the multifunction displays, about seven radios, the cyclic and the thrust levers. For air assault it can mount up to three M240 machine guns.

The Chinook was designed for the Army's heavy-transport missions and entered service in 1961. Its name comes from a Native American people of the state of Washington. The two tandem rotors replace the tail rotor, are synchronized by drive shafts, and either engine can keep it flying on its own. It reaches 170 knots and is usually escorted by AH-64 Apache attack helicopters.