Boeing CH-47 Chinook

Updated: October 2026 – First you hear it, then you see it: a deep, beating rotor sound rolls across the fields, and then a long, olive-green or gray box with two huge rotors slides over the horizon. The Boeing CH-47 Chinook has been one of the world’s most distinctive military helicopters for more than six decades. On this page you will learn how to recognize it, which versions exist, where it flies in Europe and what the procurement of 60 CH-47F for the Bundeswehr (the German armed forces) means for spotters in Germany.

What is the CH-47 Chinook?

The Chinook is a heavy-lift transport helicopter with two main rotors in a tandem arrangement. It brings soldiers, vehicles, equipment and external loads to places where no airplane can land: clearings, mountain slopes, ship decks or improvised landing sites. In civil disaster relief it is known as a firefighting helicopter with a huge water tank or as a rescuer during floods.

The story begins at Vertol in Pennsylvania. With the Model 107, the company had already developed a tandem-rotor helicopter that later served with the US Marine Corps as the CH-46 Sea Knight. The US Army, however, wanted something bigger. The result was an enlarged design, the Model 114. Boeing bought Vertol in 1960, and on September 21, 1961, the YCH-47A prototype took off for its first flight in Ridley Park near Philadelphia. The helicopter takes its name from the Chinook people of the northwestern United States – a tradition for US Army helicopters.

Since then, according to common estimates, more than 1,200 Chinooks have been built. The current CH-47F version first flew in 2001 and has been delivered since 2006. Besides the US Army and US Special Operations Command, Boeing counts around 20 international operators, from Australia, Japan and India to Greece, Turkey and Germany. You can find more about the company behind it on the Boeing page.

Technology in brief

The heart of the aircraft is two Honeywell T55-GA-714A engines, which Boeing rates at 4,777 shaft horsepower each on the CH-47F Block II. The turbines sit on the outside of both sides of the rear rotor pylon and drive both rotors through a common gearbox; the rotors are linked by a shaft running through the fuselage. If one engine fails, both rotors keep turning in sync.

The two three-blade rotors are 18.3 meters in diameter each and turn in opposite directions. This cancels the torques, so no tail rotor is needed. With the rotors turning, the Chinook measures about 30.1 meters in length according to Boeing, the fuselage alone 15.6 meters. Cruising speed is 291 km/h and top speed is 302 km/h – remarkably quick for a helicopter of this size.

Depending on the configuration, the cargo bay holds over 30 soldiers or up to 24 litters. In addition there are up to three hooks under the fuselage for external loads. That is one reason spotters often photograph the Chinook with a vehicle, a container or a water bucket on a line.

The features that are enough to identify it

With the Chinook, identification is for once easy. The more interesting question is the version and the operator.

The livery helps with the operator: RAF aircraft carry the British roundel, the Dutch carry serials with the prefix D-, and Spain and Italy show their national markings on the fuselage. In the Bundeswehr the Chinook gets a numeric serial like all aircraft; how the system works is explained in the article Registrations of Bundeswehr aircraft.

Versions at a glance

Externally, the Chinook has changed surprisingly little over six decades. The big leaps came in engines, gearbox, rotor blades and above all in the cockpit.

Version	First flight or introduction	What sets it apart
CH-47A	1961 (prototype)	Original version, used in Vietnam from the 1960s
CH-47B	Deliveries from 1967	more powerful engines
CH-47C	First flight 1967	strengthened gearboxes, more range; built under license in Italy
CH-47D	First flight 1979	comprehensive modernization, mostly converted from older airframes
CH-47F	First flight 2001, deliveries from 2006	Glass cockpit, digital flight controls, T55-GA-714A
CH-47F Block II	latest stage	strengthened airframe, new tanks, improved drivetrain, more payload
MH-47E/G	from 1990	Special forces versions with aerial refueling probe and large sponsons

The Royal Air Force has its own designation system: the first HC1 arrived in 1980, followed later by the HC2, HC4 and HC5, among others. Since the mid-2010s, 14 newly built HC6 based on the CH-47F have been flying, and the modernized HC4 now run as the HC6A. In Italy the licensed version is called ICH-47F, and in Spain the Chinook carries the military designation HT.17.

A Chinook or something else?

Mix-ups are rare, but in poor light, at long distance or with a quick glimpse through the trees, your mind can play tricks. The finder helps you narrow it down.

The comparison pages for the Sikorsky CH-53, Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey and Mil Mi-26 show you the differences in detail. For an all-round look at rotorcraft, see the guide How to identify helicopter types.

Operators in Europe

For spotters in central Europe, the Chinook is no everyday visitor, but no rarity either. An overview of the most important users – fleet numbers change, so treat the figures as a snapshot.

United Kingdom: The Royal Air Force has been Europe’s largest Chinook operator for decades. The first aircraft joined the RAF in 1980; today the fleet is concentrated at RAF Odiham in Hampshire, with training at RAF Benson. In 2024 the British Ministry of Defence announced the purchase of 14 newly built long-range Chinooks of the H-47(ER) type, which will mainly support special forces. From 1983 to 1993, RAF Chinooks were also stationed in Germany, with No. 18 Squadron at Gütersloh.

Netherlands: The Dutch air force operates its Chinooks in the Defensie Helikopter Commando. After the switch to an all-CH-47F fleet between 2015 and 2023, it has 20 aircraft. Most fly with 298 Squadron at Gilze-Rijen in North Brabant, and a few helicopters are based in the US for training. The Netherlands was the first international customer for the CH-47F, in 2007.

Spain: In the Spanish army, the Chinooks fly with the FAMET army aviation, specifically with the BHELTRA V transport helicopter battalion at Colmenar Viejo north of Madrid. Spain had its CH-47D upgraded to the F standard and additionally bought new CH-47F.

Italy: Italy has a long Chinook tradition: the CH-47C was already built under license in the country. Today Leonardo builds the ICH-47F under license; the first flew in June 2013, and deliveries to the army began in October 2014. The Italian Chinooks are based at the 1st Army Aviation Regiment “Antares” at Viterbo airport, among other places. You can find more about the Italian partner on the Leonardo page.

Other European users include Greece and Turkey. If you want to see US Army Chinooks, you also have good chances during exercises and deployments in Europe.

Place	Chance of a hit	Why
Around RAF Odiham (England)	high	Home base of the RAF Chinook fleet
Around Gilze-Rijen (Netherlands)	high	Home base of the Dutch CH-47F
Airshows and open days	medium to high	on static display or in the flying program
Military training areas	medium	Troop transport and external loads
Holzdorf (once the CH-47F arrive)	increasing	Main location of the Bundeswehr Chinooks

The Chinook in the Bundeswehr

For spotters in Germany, the most exciting chapter is the newest one. For years, the Bundeswehr has been looking for a successor to its aging CH-53G, which the army put into service from the 1970s and which now fly with the air force. In June 2022 the choice fell on the Chinook, over Sikorsky’s competing CH-53K.

On order are 60 helicopters of the CH-47F Block II type, which will be equipped as the CH-47F(DE) with aerial refueling capability. The order went through the US Foreign Military Sales program in summer 2023, and the Bundeswehr puts the project at around seven billion euros. According to the Bundeswehr, final assembly of the first aircraft began in April 2026 in Philadelphia; the first is due to arrive in Germany in the fourth quarter of 2027, the last by the end of 2032.

The main location will be Holzdorf air base on the border between Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt, where Helicopter Wing 64 with its CH-53s is already based today. 47 of the 60 aircraft are planned there, and the site is being extensively expanded for it. According to current plans, Laupheim in Upper Swabia follows as the second location. With large defense projects, schedules tend to slip; whether the first aircraft really touches down in Holzdorf in 2027 is therefore worth keeping an eye on.

For spotters this means: in the coming years the CH-53G and CH-47F will run in parallel. The last CH-53G flights will become coveted subjects in their own right, and the first German Chinooks are likely to draw crowds at air shows such as the Bundeswehr Day or ILA Berlin. What you need to keep in mind when photographing at air bases is covered in the article Photographing military airfields: the rules.

Tracking and finding Chinooks

You plan for military helicopters differently than for airliners. There is no flight schedule, and many flights are hidden on commercial tracking services. Still, some Chinooks transmit Mode S or ADS-B signals and show up under the type code H47. How this works and which services operate unfiltered is explained in the guide Tracking military aircraft online. The article Finding helicopters on the flight tracker is tailored specifically to rotorcraft.

Airshows offer the most reliable chances. At the Royal International Air Tattoo in Fairford, British and other European Chinooks are often on show, and smaller air days and open days also regularly put the type in front of the camera. You can find dates in the overview of airshows in Europe.

If you are interested in the Italian helicopter tradition that the licensed production of the Chinook comes from, the Volandia museum near Milan Malpensa has a large rotorcraft section. It is best to check on the museum’s page beforehand whether a Chinook is on display right now.

Photo tips especially for the Chinook

With two rotors you get twice the motion in the frame – and twice the chance of catching a frozen rotor that makes the photo look static.

The technique is the same as for propellers; the basics are in the guide Photographing propellers: the right shutter speed. The article Helicopter spotting collects general tips for rotorcraft.

Common mix-ups and how to rule them out

For more help telling apart the large fixed-wing military transports, see the article Identifying military transports. If you are interested in the attack helicopters from the same company, take a look at the Boeing AH-64 Apache.

Conclusion

The Chinook is one of those aircraft you never forget once you have heard it live. Two rotors, no tail rotor, ramp at the rear – identification is child’s play, while the hunt for versions and operators is a long-term project. For spotters in Germany, a new era is dawning: with the Bundeswehr’s 60 CH-47F, the tandem-rotor helicopter goes from rare visitor to home-based type, while the CH-53G gradually disappear.