Its roar defines the power underneath its skin. From real-life battles to pop culture references, the CH47F Chinook is one tough machine which has been tested against all odds. Yet the twin rotor multirole heavy lifter refuses to die, in its glorious service of more than 50 years, this particular bird has served all the way from Vietnam to Afghanistan. And it’s an obvious fact that once people start noticing the capabilities, they hardly resist their feeling of getting their hands on one of them. Today the CH47F Chinook serves 25 nations, and among them is India.
The CH47 boasts a lot of features which other helicopters don’t. Its cargo holding capacity is regarded on par with the most state of the art helicopters. And that’s not all, the heavy lifting bird has a top speed of 315km/hr. The Indian Airforce’s plan of purchasing 15 CH47Fs is in the delivering phase as 4 out of the 15 birds have already been delivered and are going to be deployed in Chandigarh. However the CH47F designation has been tweaked a bit, now the sky blue twin rotor behemoth will be called the CH47F(I) for the addition of Indian avionics.
The multirole capabilities of Chinook can be classified as:-
1. Troop transportation
2. Heavy cargo transportation
3. Medivac
4. Heavy construction work
5. Disaster relief
Since the dawn of the modern age, the Chinook has always had that aura of mesmerizing people and its users alike. Most pilots applaud its maneuverability and power, it knows how to handle tough situations with ease. With a service ceiling of 20,000ft, the Chinook is ideal for operations in the hilly areas. With these new birds in the skies, things can drastically change for the Indian Defense Forces, and with the delivery of 22 AH64 Apache combat helicopters, the sky and the land will be safer than ever before.
