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Since its inception in the early 1960s, the Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter has been a symbol of strength, adaptability and endurance in the world of aviation. With its unmistakable tandem rotor design and unparalleled lift capacity, the Chinook consistently demonstrated its ability to perform in a wide range of demanding situations, from military operations to disaster relief and beyond. In this article, Will Dabbs, MD delves into the fascinating history of the CH-47, examines its unique design features, and explores how this remarkable aircraft evolved over the decades to remain a critical asset in both military and civilian applications around the globe.
In my day, at least, when it was time to find out what sort of tactical aircraft you would fly, the U.S. Army didn’t make a terribly big deal about it. Though the rest of our military careers turned on the announcement, we all just gathered in a classroom toward the end of flight school at Fort Rucker, and our company commander read the results off of a computer printout. We were then left to be either elated or crushed as the situation dictated. I was personally crushed.
Not in so many words, but I told the Army I wanted to fly anything in the inventory except CH-47D Chinooks. I collected machine guns and had grown up reading everything I could find about World War II fighter planes. I chose the U.S. Army over the Air Force because I thought attack helicopters were more akin to P-38 Lightnings than might be F-15 fighters. I wanted to fly an airplane, not manage a bunch of systems. I had hoped that helicopter gunships might scratch that itch. And then I got Chinooks.
It’s weird, the U.S. Army. I actually did quite well in flight school, and my instructors all endorsed me for guns. The Chinook transition was quite the desirable slot, it was simply that I didn’t want it. There were other guys who got Snakes but wanted Chinooks. I always suspected Uncle Sam just hated us for some unfathomable reason.
Anyway, as a soldier, you are trained not to get what you want, so we just sucked it up and moved on. And then I actually strapped on a CH-47D, and I realized what all the fuss was about. The Chinook was a simply magnificent machine.
In helicopters, speed and maneuverability are a function of power, not aerodynamics. The Chinook has scads of that. My versions packed an aggregate 9,000 shaft horsepower into two Lycoming turboshaft engines. That made the big Chinook wicked fast.
VNE (Velocity never to exceed) for a CH-47D was 170 knots, or about 195 miles per hour. The Blackhawk and Apache were faster, but only in a dive. The Chinook would walk away from them both in level flight. I actually did that myself several times just to prove a point. When deftly wielded, the CH-47D would turn on a dime as well.
Most conventional helicopters are slaves to tailwinds. The tail rotor on a traditional helicopter is just there to counteract main rotor torque and keep the machine pointed in the right direction. Whatever power is required to keep that thing spinning is essentially wasted. By contrast, the massive twin counter-rotating rotors on the Chinook funnel all that power into lift. It also doesn’t much care what direction it is pointed. I once held a Chinook at a stationary hover in a mountain pass in Alaska and read 73 knots on the airspeed indicator.
Semi-rigid rotor systems like those of the Cobra or Huey cannot be operated at less than one-half of one positive G. Unloading the rotors, like hugging terrain at speed while flying NOE (nap of the earth) across a hilltop, can cause them to come apart. By contrast, the fully-articulated system on the Chinook feasted on negative G’s. According to the simulator, a CH-47D will execute a splendid aileron roll, though I have never tried that myself in the real world.
Details
The D-model CH-47 tops out at 50,000 pounds and is 98 feet long from rotor tip to rotor tip. It features seatbelts for 33 combat troops, but can carry lots more in a pinch. The fuselage is 52 feet long, and each rotor blade spans 30 feet. While weight and balance are always important in helicopters, I found that the Chinook would carry most anything you could stuff into it.
The service ceiling for the CH-47D is listed as 20,000 feet, but I have personally taken one to just shy of 22k. The aircraft has mounts for three defensive machine guns. Ours were sucktastic D-model M60 machine guns. Nowadays, they use M240 guns. The Night Stalkers of the 160th SOAR (Special Operations Aviation Regiment) operate Dillon M134D miniguns. Those are undeniably sexy cool, but an electrically-powered machine gun is just ballast if the electrical system fails or is shot away.
Unlike lesser U.S. Army helicopters, the Chinook is a fantastic instrument platform. The AFCS (Advanced Flight Control System) will fly the aircraft hands-off in cruise mode. Heading changes can be easily effected simply by turning a knob on the instrument panel that orients a heading bug on the HSI (Horizontal Situation Indicator). I’m sure all that is digital today. All of the flight instruments are perfectly replicated on both sides of the cockpit, so the machine is equally friendly from either seat.
CH-47F Chinook Technical Specifications
Here are the published Chinook specifications:
| Crew | 3 (2 pilots, 1 flight engineer) |
| Load Carrying Capacity | 33 troops or 24 litters |
| Length, Overall | 98′ |
| Length, Fuselage | 52′ |
| Weight, Empty | 24,578 lbs |
| Weight, Maximum Takeoff | 50,000 lbs |
| Powerplant | 2x Lycoming T55-GA-714A turboshaft engines with 4,733 SHP each |
| Velocity, never to exceed | 170 knots |
| Service Ceiling | 20,000′ |
| Armament | 3x M240 machine guns |
Pilot Stuff
The tandem rotor design of the CH-47D offers certain benefits not afforded by lesser aircraft. With a little practice, a skilled pilot could cause the machine to pivot precisely around the forward rotor head, the aft head, or the cargo hook in the middle. An awe-inspiring spiraling vertical liftoff executed at maximum power settings was called a Black Cat takeoff. No other machine could really do that.
Pinnacle landings were uniquely cool. With the flight engineer providing guidance the aft landing gear could be precisely located on a mountaintop or something similar. Then by setting the cyclic to the rear, the pilot could plant the aft gear and then use the thrust (what would be the collective in a lesser aircraft) to adjust pitch and maintain station. The same technique could be used to taxi the big helicopter on its back two wheels. The Chinook also made a great paradrop platform. You could feel a little bump through your seat every time one of the heavily-laden paratroopers left the aft ramp.
Practicalities of the Chinook
U.S. Army doctrine, at least in my day before there were so many blasted drones, was to push the tactical aircraft as close to the front as possible. That meant we lived out of our machines. We actually affectionately referred to the CH-47D as the Boeing Hilton. With so much space, there was plenty of room for the crew to lower the sling seats and use them as cots. I have spent weeks on end living out of my aircraft. After an extended period in the field, the inside of the aircraft begins to look like a homeless encampment, but it is still better than the alternative.
Operations in the Arctic bring their own unique challenges. As the machine is basically a big aluminum tube, it doesn’t take long for the aircraft to become cold-soaked at fifty below zero. Our arctic sleeping bags were up to the task, but it was always a gut check to see who was going to be the first out of their fart sack to go crank the auxiliary power unit and get that 200,000-BTU heater cooking. That puppy ran off of jet fuel and would render the Boeing Hilton mosty toasty in no time, no matter how ghastly it was outside.
I later got to fly both AH-1S Cobras and OH-58A/C helicopters. I learned to fly on Vietnam-era UH-1H Hueys in flight school. The Huey had the nostalgia, and the Snake the sex appeal. Driving Aeroscouts single-pilot with the doors off was like flying a motorcycle. However, nothing can compare to the sensation of power you get when you tug the up stick in a CH-47D and feel those 9,000 horses kick you in the butt. That was a wild ride, indeed.
𝔍𝔦𝔪𝔪𝔶 𝔇𝔬𝔬𝔩𝔦𝔱𝔱𝔩𝔢 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔥𝔦𝔰 𝔅-25 𝔐𝔦𝔱𝔠𝔥𝔢𝔩𝔩 𝔭𝔯𝔦𝔬𝔯 𝔱𝔬 𝔱𝔞𝔨𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔬𝔣𝔣 𝔣𝔯𝔬𝔪 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔘𝔖𝔖 ℌ𝔬𝔯𝔫𝔢𝔱 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔯𝔞𝔦𝔡 𝔱𝔬 𝔟𝔬𝔪𝔟 𝔗𝔬𝔨𝔶𝔬
What they don’t usually mention that because the Chinese People helped these brave men. That an estimated 250,000 Chinese lives were taken by the Japanese Imperial Army. Grumpy
When our exalted editorship was telling me Smith & Wesson asked what caliber they might consider as a follow-up to the very successful return of the Model 21 .44 Special we unveiled on the cover of Handgunner (Nov/Dec 2004), he said his vote was for the exact same gun but in .45 Colt. I said, “Bah, humbug!” Not exactly the best way to get a raise, but its my version of the truth. (Editor’s note: What Duke actually said, with a big sigh, was, “If you had any sense, you’d know what I’m talking about. How’d you ever get to be the editor, anyway?” Just so you know.)
Unless your purpose is to load with black powder or to fulfill a sense of nostalgia, no one with any sense would pick the .45 Colt over the .45 Auto-Rim/.45 ACP for a revolver cartridge. There are the guys who buy the big Rugers and stoke them up with super-stout loads. Hell, the reloading manuals even have special sections on loading the .45 Colt to high pressures especially for Rugers. That’s turning the .45 Colt into sort of a .45 Magnum, and not what I mean at all.
What I’m talking about is using the .45 Colt at the ballistics it is factory loaded, or at handloaded equivalents. In that arena, the .45 Auto-Rim/.45 ACP can do anything the .45 Colt can, and do it more efficiently and with better accuracy.
Ever seen a .45 Colt shoot like this? This S&W Model 1955 put 10 shots in 1 3⁄4″ at 25 yards.
From left: .45 Auto-Rim, .45 ACP and .45 Colt.
No, Honest
In its day the .45 Colt was a humdinger, pure and simple. It was designed for black powder, and those old factory loads with 35 to 40 grains were powerful by any standard. They had to be. In developing the .45 Colt cartridge, the U.S. Army intended it for the cavalry. Cavalry combat in those days meant horses, and they are both easier to hit and harder to knock down than people. So the Army’s cartridge developers wanted a handgun cartridge with power beyond what was needed for people.
They got it too. The .45 Colt, with black powder loads, was rated at about 900 fps with 250 grain bullets from the 7.5″ barrel of a Colt SAA. In the black powder era no other handgun cartridge was close, except the .44 WCF (.44-40). Others, such as .45 S&W (Schofield) .44 Russian, .44 Colt, .44 American and so forth all did good to break 750 fps, and with lighter bullets at that.
In my personal experience a case-full of black powder in the .45 Colt often exceeds 900 fps and sometimes breaks 1,000 fps, depending on the exact type and amount of powder used. So the .45 Colt’s case was made 1.285″ long to hold all that black powder. Incidentally that length is the same as for .357, .41 and .44 Magnums.
A double action .45 AR revolver could be loaded with either half moon clips using .45 ACP loads, or a speed loader with .45 AR rounds.
224-grain full wadcutter (left) and 223-grain roundnose/flat point (right).
.45 AR, .45 Colt and .45 AR. Duke says toss the one in the middle!
Blistering Loads?
Now fast forward to the smokeless powder era. To equal black powder ballistics and pressures in the .45 Colt requires tiny little charges of most smokeless propellants. Lyman’s newest RELOADING HANDBOOK #48 lists MAX loads with 250 grain bullets as being 9 grains of Unique, 7.4 grains of W231, or 6.2 grains of Titegroup. I swear, when one of those charges is dropped into a .45 Colt case I hear an echo! And what sort of velocities do they get with those MAX charges? The most is with the W231 load and it’s a “blistering” 894 fps from a 7.5″ barrel.
And those tiny little charges in great big cases can lead to all sorts of problems. The least of which is gas blow-by. That is caused when the cartridge case walls don’t obdurate to seal the chamber and gas leaks back along the case. It’s harmless, but is the reason behind your .45 Colt cases being burnt black along one side after firing.
Let’s even discount the very controversial accusation about light charges in big cases blowing up guns, since we can’t prove that it happens. The fact remains many cowboy action shooters have blown up their .45 Colt handguns. I’ve personally been at three matches where it has happened, and been sent photos of many more. And yes, I did one myself here at home.
Generally speaking the topstrap and top three chambers go into orbit. Amazingly no one has been hurt when this happened at matches I was attending. Discounting a light charge phenomenon, leaves double-charging as a culprit, and it’s a fact you really have to be looking to spot a double charge in a .45 Colt case.
Thirdly, those small powder charges tumbling about in the huge .45 Colt case can lead to ballistic inefficiency. Powder down in the front of the case on firing leads to one velocity; powder back in the rear of the case leads to another velocity. If the bullets are lightly crimped — or not crimped at all — the situation can be worse, to the point of hangfires and misfires. I’ve seen it happen. As a matter of fact, Hodgdon developed their relatively new Titegroup powder to not be position sensitive in the case; specifically to help with this problem. It works, too.
Good news. To convert a set of .45 ACP dies to load .45 AR cartridges requires only a different shell holder.
Me Worry?
But why have a problem? The U.S. Army figured this out too. When smokeless propellants were safely ensconced in society, what did they do with the .45 Colt? They threw it in the “obsolete” heap. Then they designed a new .45 caliber cartridge that was only .898″ long and called it the .45 ACP. They had to drop bullet weight about 20 grains but did they have to reduce velocity from .45 Colt loads? No way; they had already done that.
For their short-lived Model 1909 (Colt New Service) .45 revolver they had reduced their smokeless .45 Colt service loads down to 725 fps with 250 grain bullets. I’ve got an original unopened box of .45 Colt Model 1909 loads that shows it. Why did they make their smokeless .45 Colt service loads so puny? My guess is they probably didn’t want to take a chance on blowing up all those black powder era .45 Colt Single Action Army revolvers they still had floating around in inventory.
Then, with typical government farsightedness, in 1917 the United States entered a full-fledged war without enough guns to fight it. A solution to their lack of pistols was to get both S&W and Colt to chamber their big frame revolvers for .45 ACP. Extraction of the rimless case was provided by a little spring steel “halfmoon” clip. It was a good idea and still is.
About 1921 the Peters Cartridge Company saw a gap in the market and filled it. They simply put a rim on the .45 ACP case and called it the .45 Auto-Rim. It’s now deader than the manual typewriter, and that’s a shame. It’s a fine cartridge and makes much better sense than a .45 Colt, except for Old West nostalgia and black powder shooting.
The U.S. Army had the Colt all figured out in 1909. Note the 725 fps velocity on the box label.
Makes Sense
Go ahead and let the rampage begin, but I’m making sense here. And let me tell you this — I’m no newcomer to the .45 Colt. My records show I’ve owned 48 handguns so chambered, and still have 11 right now. Since 1968 when I bought my first Colt SAA, my handgun assortment has never been without one. “So wiseass,” you ask, “if you say they suck, why do you have so many?” Old West nostalgia — except for a Navy Arms Schofield, they’re all Colt Peacemakers. I already said that was a valid reason.
But, let me tell you this. Except for shooting done for articles and BP loads, I haven’t fired a round of .45 Colt for years. Many hundreds of the shorter .45 S&W (Schofield) shells have passed through those guns, but almost nary a .45 Colt. In fact I’ve only got a couple hundred rounds of .45 Colt brass lying around this place.
Now let me tell you something else. Before 2004, I had never fired a single round of .45 Auto-Rim and therefore had never handloaded for the cartridge either. In 2004 I added a half-dozen S&W and Colt revolvers chambered for it to my collection. Taking into account my ignorance of the cartridge, I proceeded to load over 1,000 rounds, and then fire them through those .45s; mostly testing for accuracy and chronographing. It’s a huckleberry!
That cartridge looks big and serious — but do you really need it?
The Plot Thickens
My project showed .45AR handguns can be finely accurate. That shouldn’t be a surprise, because both Colt and S&W have produced many thousands of targetgrade .45AR revolvers. Target-grade .45 Colt sixguns? What’s that? My project also showed equaling .45 Colt ballistics was no problem. With bullets weighing from 225 to 250 grains, my .45AR revolvers with barrel lengths of 5.5″ to 6.5″ were on a par with .45 Colt ballistics. Using powder charges taken directly from reloading manuals, and not MAX ones by any means, the .45AR’s velocities were running in the 850 to 900 fps range.
Here are some examples: 4.7 grains of Red Dot with the Redding/Saeco 225 grain full wadcutter cast bullet (#453) gave 891 fps from the Colt’s 5.5″ barrel. Extreme spread in those 10 round’s velocity readings was only 28 fps. Using the Oregon Trail 250 grain RN/FP and 5.6 grains of Unique gave 868 fps from the same gun with 29 fps extreme spread. The point is that powder charges in the .45AR case aren’t floating around, so they burn consistently. And here’s a good point: converting a set of .45 ACP dies to reload .45AR consists of just adding the proper shell holder.
Sharp witted readers must be thinking for the smaller .45AR to equal the larger .45 Colt then it has to be working at higher pressures. Sure, and so what? Speer’s RELOADING MANUAL #13 lists .45 Colt pressures at 14,000 psi and .45AR at 15,000 psi. But the .45 ACP is listed at 21,000 psi, and all revolvers made for .45AR/.45 ACP are safe for use with any of the .45 ACP loads.
If you’re going to load this dab of smokeless powder, which cartridge does it make most sense to put it in?
Accurate?
The .45 Colt has never had much of a reputation for accuracy, but to be honest that has been more a problem with the gun’s dimensions rather than anything inherent to the cartridge itself. For decades gunmakers put .456″ or bigger chamber mouths in .45 Colt cylinders, but barrels of only .451″. Smith & Wesson saw the light some years back and reduced chamber mouths. Ruger did too, but sometimes corrected the problem too much. Colt has, as usual, proceeded down their own lonely trail.
In all my test firing of .45 Colt handguns over almost 40 years, I feel it’s a rare one that will group five shots under 2″ at 25 yards. With my assortment of .45ARs, often the first five shots cut a ragged hole, and many times five more dumped on top of them still left groups under 2″. Like I said, there have been many .45AR target-grade revolvers.
These are a good assortment of .45 AR/.45 ACP revolvers produced since WW I.
Left from top down: Colt Model 1917, S&W Model 1950 Target, S&W Model 1955 Target.
At right from top down; S&W Model 1917, and S&W Model 1950 Army.
Duke Says
So here’s my say on the matter. When Smith & Wesson follows up the Thunder Ranch .44 Special Revolver with another, then just leave everything alone and make it for .45AR/.45 ACP. Then I bet we can prevail on Jeff Hoffman at Black Hills Ammunition to make us a .45AR factory load with about a 225/230 grain SWC bullet at 800/850 fps. Think of the versatility! Such a handgun could be loaded with .45AR cases and quick reloads done with speed loaders, or if someone wanted to use .45 ACP in half moon clips, that’s a perfectly good alternative.
If you want to love the .45 Colt for its wonderfully colorful history, then by all means do. If you think it’s great to stoke it full of black powder and cause everyone else on the firing line to jump and say, “What the hell was that!” Then go for it — I do it, and it’s great fun. But if you think the .45 Colt is some great shakes as an all-around smokeless powder revolver cartridge — you’re wrong. The .45AR is better. It may be dead but it shouldn’t be. Let the letters begin!
—————————————————————————– This is just your classic click bait / create letters to the editor piece. While he does make a good arguement. But if I had to face down some nasty bit of shit. I would not be terribly worried about it if I had a S&W model 25 in my paw. Grumpy
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FROM THEO SPARK
BG Reem Aminorach estimated the combined cost of the US-UK-FR-IS defense against Iran’s attack was $1-1.3 billion (4-5 billion Shekels) per Ynet.news.
Estimates of the cost to the Iranians for attacking Israel range from less than 10% to one-fortieth of that billion and using only 10% of their stockpiles.
Some back of the envelope math suggests the Clown World side of this equation lost its a$$.
While the Russian bear continues to ‘poke back’ against Clown World with considerable restraint, they are not alone.
Iran told the US in advance their response to Israeli provocation would be ‘limited.’
– It was. The two Israeli airbases that launched the Iranian Embassy attack were both targeted and hit.
A ‘win’ for Iran and Israel-US exposed as paper tigers? [shades of NATO-Ukraine]
– There is NO WAY Israel could have intercepted (or survived) hundreds of Iranian ‘incoming’ without a week of Israel and allies putting defences into place (while Iran waited for them to prepare). [Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow]
– A clear ‘message’ has been sent:
A REAL Iranian attack would not have been ‘telegraphed’ in advance allowing Israel-US to prepare for it.