CH-47D Chinook Helicopter

The Boeing Chinook is a tandem-rotor, heavy-lift transport helicopter known as a workhorse of the U.S. Army, designed to move personnel, supplies, and equipment in support of combat operations, with secondary missions including medical evacuation, disaster relief, firefighting, and search and rescue. Its front-and-rear tandem rotors provide strong handling capabilities that allow it to operate in difficult environmental conditions that can keep other helicopters from flying, and it was named after the Native American Chinook people. The aircraft on display was originally built as a CH-47C and delivered to the U.S. Army in 1969, then deployed to Vietnam, where it served with C Company of the 159th Assault Support Helicopter Battalion through 1972. In 1973, the Army loaned it to Air America, a passenger and cargo airline covertly owned and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency, and it flew missions in Laos in support of Central Intelligence Agency operations during the Vietnam War before returning to the Army in 1974. After the Vietnam War, Boeing upgraded it to a CH-47D with new fiberglass rotor blades, new engines, a redesigned cockpit, and more advanced avionics. It returned to Army service in 1991, served with multiple units, and flew in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Huntsville, Alabama · United States