Helicopters Boeing Vertol CH-47 Chinook: Boeing Helicopters is a US aircraft manufacturer, part of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. It was created as Boeing Vertol when the Piasecki Helicopter company was acquired by Boeing in 1960. The company was responsible for the design and production of the CH-46 Sea Knight and the CH-47 Chinook. As a defense conversion project in the late 1970s, Boeing Vertol built light rail vehicles for the Boston and San Francisco transit systems, based on a standard configuration promoted by the Urban Mass Transit Administration. As a new design from a company with no previous experience in building rail transit equipment, the Boeing LRVs were considered expensive and unreliable; they were nicknamed "Boeing Bathtubs" for their off-white fiberglass interiors which darkened after exposure to sunlight. As a result of these problems, no other transit systems were willing to order the LRV, and the product was quickly dropped. It adopted its current name in 1987. When Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas, the former Mesa, Arizona operations of Hughes Helicopters were merged into Boeing Helicopters.
The CH-47 Chinook is a versatile, twin-engine, twin-rotor heavy-lift helicopter. The contra-rotating rotors eliminate the need for a rear vertical rotor, allowing all power to be used for lift and thrust, giving a top speed of 173 mph (150 knots, 278 km/h). Its primary roles include troop movement, artillery emplacement, and battlefield resupply. Chinooks have been sold to 16 nations, the largest users of which are the US Army and the Royal Air Force (see RAF Chinook). A commercial model, the Boeing 234 Chinook, is used worldwide for logging, construction, fighting forest fires, and supporting petroleum exploration operations. CH-47A
The Boeing Vertol (model 114) YCH-1B/YCH-47A made its initial hovering flight on September 21, 1961. The all-weather medium-lift CH-47A Chinook entered service in Vietnam about 1966. The CH-47A was powered by either AlliedSignal Engines T55-L-5 2200 shp (1,640 kW) or T55-L-7 2650 shp (1,980 kW) engines.