The Boeing CH-47 Chinook is an American twin-engine, tandem rotor, heavy-lift helicopter developed by the American rotorcraft company Vertol and manufactured by Boeing Vertol (later renamed Boeing Helicopter and now named Boeing Aircraft Rotor System). The CH-47 is one of the heaviest lifters of the Western helicopter. His name, Chinook, is from the Native American Chinook people of Washington state.The Chinook was originally designed by Vertol, who began work in 1957 on a new tandem-rotor helicopter, designated the Vertol Model 107 or V-107. Around the same time, the United States Department of the Army announced its intention to replace the piston-powered Sikorsky CH-37 Mojave engine with a new, gas turbine-powered helicopter. During June 1958, the US Army ordered a small number of V-107s from Vertol under the designation YHC-1A; after testing, it was deemed by some Army officials to be too heavy for assault missions and too light for transport purposes. While the YHC-1A was to be upgraded and adopted by the US Marine Corps as the CH-46 Sea Knight, the Army sought a heavier transport helicopter, and ordered an enlarged derivative of the V-107 with the designation Vertol Model 114. Originally designated as the YCH-1B, On September 21, 1961, the preproduction helicopter made its maiden flight. In 1962, the HC-1B was renamed the CH-47A under the 1962 United States Tri-Service aircraft designation system.

The Chinook has several means for loading a variety of cargo, including multiple doors across the fuselage, a wide loading ramp located at the rear of the fuselage and a total of three external ventral cargo hooks for carrying loads underneath. Capable of reaching a top speed of 170 knots (200 mph; 310 km/h), after its introduction into service in 1962, it was much faster than the utility and attack helicopters of the 1960s, and is still one of the fastest helicopters in the inventory. US. A better and more powerful version of the Chinook has also been developed since its introduction; one of the most substantial variants to be produced was the CH-47D, which first entered service in 1982; Improvements from the standard CH-47C include an upgraded engine, composite rotor blades, a redesigned cockpit to reduce workloads, an upgraded and redundant electrical and avionics system, and the adoption of an advanced flight control system. It remains one of the few aircraft developed during the early 1960s – along with the fixed-wing Lockheed C-130 Hercules cargo plane – to remain in front-line production and service for more than 50 years.

Military versions of the helicopter have been exported to countries around the world; the US Army and Royal Air Force (see Boeing Chinook (UK variant) ) have two of the largest users. The civilian version of the Chinook is the Boeing Vertol 234. It has been used by civilian operators not only for passenger and cargo transportation, but also for aerial firefighting and to support the logging, construction, and oil extraction industries.