Every so often a machine comes along that is so well designed that its usefulness doesn’t diminish over time. The mousetrap is the classic example, but CH-47 Chinook is a rare example of a much more complicated machine that has achieved a similar status. Tweaks have been made over the years, but the CH-47 and the many related variants have stayed on as the longest-serving helicopter model in the history of the U.S. military by being such a great design to begin with. It’s even good enough that a car site is reviewing a helicopter for Veteran’s Day.
The CH-47 was first introduced in 1962, and was used from the beginning of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. It was still a pretty new piece of equipment in those days, so there weren’t very many of them for a while, and there was a steep learning curve, but it soon became obvious that it was an incredibly useful machine. Today, improvements have been made and the Chinook is more useful than ever, a helicopter capable of doing the work of three smaller utility helicopters. The name Chinook, like many of the U.S. Army’s helicopter names, comes from the name of a Native American tribe.
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