AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 105 / 127

Plate 105 of 127 · Cold War · Tandem-rotor heavy-lift helicopter

Boeing Chinook HC.6A

Chinook HC.6A, painted as ZA718 ‘BN’, “Bravo November”, the RAF tandem-rotor heavy-lift helicopter of the CH-47D family with two Lycoming turboshafts on the rear pylon, three-bladed rotors fore and aft, long fuel sponsons and four-wheel undercarriage; painted as it is displayed at the RAF Museum Midlands, Cosford: overall matt green with small red and blue roundels on the forward cabin, a red and blue fin flash on the rear pylon, ‘BN’ in black on the front of the forward pylon, the serial in small black characters on the rear fuselage and a yellow rescue arrow on the port side, with red intake blanks, black blades and the loading ramp lowered.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as ZA718 ‘BN’, “Bravo November”, the RAF tandem-rotor heavy-lift helicopter of the CH-47D family with two Lycoming turboshafts on the rear pylon, three-bladed rotors fore and aft, long fuel sponsons and four-wheel undercarriage; painted as it is displayed at the RAF Museum Midlands, Cosford: overall matt green with small red and blue roundels on the forward cabin, a red and blue fin flash on the rear pylon, ‘BN’ in black on the front of the forward pylon, the serial in small black characters on the rear fuselage and a yellow rescue arrow on the port side, with red intake blanks, black blades and the loading ramp lowered. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1019 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (CH-47D); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Chinook HC.6A modelled here.

History

The Chinook HC.6A

Vertol, the company Frank Piasecki had founded to build tandem-rotor helicopters, was bought by Boeing in 1960, and its Model 114 became the US Army’s new medium-lift helicopter. It kept the tandem layout, with one three-bladed rotor over the cockpit and another on a tall pylon at the tail, turning in opposite directions so that no tail rotor was needed, but it put two turboshafts on the sides of the rear pylon and left the long, square cabin clear, with a loading ramp at the back. The first YCH-47A flew on 21 September 1961, and the CH-47A Chinook entered service in 1962. Chinooks carried troops, guns and stores in Vietnam and recovered thousands of downed aircraft there.

Britain ordered 15 CH-47Bs in 1967 to replace the Belvedere, then cancelled them. A second order, placed in 1978, went ahead, and the Chinook HC.1 entered RAF service in 1980. In the Falklands War of 1982 four RAF Chinooks were sent south in the container ship Atlantic Conveyor; when Exocet missiles sank her on 25 May, only the one that was airborne survived, and it did the work of a whole squadron. From 1993 the RAF’s fleet was rebuilt by Boeing as the HC.2, close to the US Army’s CH-47D, and later upgraded again as the HC.4 and, with a digital flight control system, the HC.6A.

Since then RAF Chinooks have served in the Balkans, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Afghanistan, where they were the main means of moving troops and casualties around Helmand, and at home in floods and snow. With more than 50 aircraft, the RAF has the largest Chinook fleet outside the United States. Over 1,200 Chinooks have been built, and new-build CH-47Fs continue the line more than 60 years after the first flight.

This airframe

HC.6A ZA718

ZA718The airframe modelled

ZA718, coded ‘BN’ and known as “Bravo November”, was one of the 1978 order of Chinook HC.1s. It was the Chinook that survived the sinking of the Atlantic Conveyor in May 1982, landing on HMS Hermes, and was then the only British heavy-lift helicopter in the Falklands. Its pilots were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross there, in Iraq in 2003 and in Afghanistan in 2010. It was the first RAF Chinook rebuilt to HC.2 standard, in 1993–94, and it served for some 40 years before it was retired in March 2022 and went to the RAF Museum at Cosford, now RAF Museum Midlands. The model shows it as photographed there: overall matt green, small red and blue roundels on the forward cabin, a red and blue fin flash on the rear pylon, ‘BN’ in black on the front of the forward pylon, the serial in small black characters on the rear fuselage and a yellow rescue arrow on the port side, with red covers over the engine intakes and the loading ramp lowered. No photograph shows the starboard side below the cockpit, so it is left plain there.

See it at Royal Air Force Museum Midlands

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Chinook HC.6A in 3 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 127 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.