A CH-47 Chinook Helicopter

Sometimes I bring my camera to work with me and today was one of those days. It was a good thing too.

My office building has a fairly thin roof and occasionally I can hear the aircraft from the Ann Arbor airport as they fly over or near the building. As I was sitting at my desk, I heard the distinctive sound of a big helicopter. So I put the big lens on my camera and headed outside.

I looked up in the sky and saw this helicopter. It is a CH-47 Chinook Helicopter (don't ask me the revision level though). The Chinook came about from an Army requirement to replace the CH-37 Mojave. The Army was looking for a heavy lift helicopter capable of carrying the Pershing missile. There was a competition and the Boeing Vertol CH-47 won.

The first flight was in 1961 and it has since seen a number of improvements and is currently up to the F model. It's cargo capacity is 28,000 pounds.