Page 43 - HeliOps Frontline Issue 26

HELIOPS FRONTLINE / ISSUE 26 / 2019 43

HEAVY LIFT STANDARD

The CH-47 Chinook has been the workhorse of Aviation’s heavy
lift role for the past five decades. The breed has been significantly
matured and improved over the years; greater engine power,
higher reliability, more complex mission avionics and better flight
control systems have all contributed to the current CH-47F being
a far more capable, more digital, platform than its immediate
predecessor the CH-47D and an quantum leap when compared to
1
the CH-47A. However, the CH-47 has not been improved in all areas.
The migration from CH-47D to Ch-47F caused a certain amount of
‘middle aged spread’. The result is that the ‘F’ is somewhere around
1500lbs heavier than the equivalent ‘D’. This can place the new
machine at a disadvantage, especially where payload is vital and
conditions are severe, such as operations in high Density Altitude.
This reduced performance has second order impacts upon other
programs; the Army’s new ‘light’ vehicle, the Oshkosh Joint Light
Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) for example is a heavier beast than the
HMMWV (‘Hummer’) it replaces as it employs lessons learnt re
protection for troops from recent campaigns, especially in terms of

1. The “E” designator was used for the SOCOM MH-47E variant.