If you have not been following trends online, especially on Twitter, in the last two days, you may not have noticed that there is another interesting aspect of the Kamala Harris state visit that people are talking about.
Apart from the fact that the first female vice president of the United States of America made a historic stop in Ghana with the landing of the Airforce 2, that has not intrigued many as much as some of the things that came in that aircraft.
One of the first posts that got many people curious to learn more about the choppers that came along with the visit of the US veep was the one from Chris Megerian, the AP White House reporter.
In his post, which was an image from inside an aircraft, he wrote, “The view of Cape Coast in Ghana en route to tour Cape Coast Castle.”
Earlier, only a few minutes before, the journalist had made a post on Twitter, showing the ride he and his other colleagues were using to Cape Coast.
“Our ride to Cape Coast, where the vice president will tour a slave fort,” he tweeted with a photo of the aircraft.
And then there were a lot of people in Cape Coast who saw the choppers fly by.
But the question remained, which aircrafts were those, and what are some of the intriguing details about them?
GhanaWeb has put together details about the aircraft, which is known as the Boeing CH-47 Chinook, for your reading pleasure.
The following details have been multiple sourced, including from boeing.com:
- The CH-47F is an advanced multi-mission helicopter for the U.S. Army and international defense forces. It contains a fully integrated, digital cockpit management system, Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS) Cockpit and advanced cargo-handling capabilities that complement the aircraft's mission performance and handling characteristics
- The CH-47 can carry6 up to 55 troops or up to approximately 10 tonnes of mixed cargo
- The CH-47F Chinook tandem-rotor helicopter is the fastest rotorcraft in the U.S. Army fleet
- It is capable of a top speed of 170 knots (200 mph; 310 km/h), upon its introduction to service in 1962, the helicopter was considerably faster than contemporary 1960s utility helicopters and attack helicopters, and is still one of the fastest helicopters in the US inventory
- The speed of the CH-47 is 302 km/h
- The Chinook has several means of loading cargo including multiple doors across the fuselage, a wide loading ramp located at the rear of the fuselage and three external hooks to carry underslung loads.
- The helicopter flies with a minimum crew of three – pilot, copilot and flight engineer
- The Chinook is one of only two military aircraft developed in the 1960s still in production and service after 50 years – the other is the C-130 - Twenty-two countries currently fly the CH-47 Chinook. The U.S. Army and U.K. Royal Air Force are the two largest operators
- Empty, the CH-47F Chinook weighs 26,800 pounds
See some photos of the aircraft below:
AE/DA
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