Boeing is to revamp production of its CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter to reduce costs, dispensing with the remanufacture of existing airframes in favour of building new fuselages. The plan has been approved by the US Army, which intends to modernise 300 Chinooks to the CH-47F standard and buy additional new-build helicopters, writes Graham Warwick.
Under the new plan, instead of stripping, cleaning and refurbishing existing CH-47D airframes, new fuselages will be produced using lean-manufacturing principles to reduce the cost. The main cabin, called the 43 Section, will be manufactured by Crestview Aerospace in Florida, while the empennage, or 46 Section, will be built at Boeing's plant in Macon, Georgia.
The company's Philadelphia, Pennsylvania plant, where the Chinook is assembled and flown, will produce the 42 Section - the cockpit and nose, which was always planned to be new-build because of fatigue issues - as well as new rotor pylons and loading ramps. Boeing says there will be no impact on employment at Philadelphia because of the ramping up of the CH-47 modernisation programme, expected new-build orders from the US Army and anticipated export business resulting from the cost reductions.
The US Army's first modernised CH-47F, a remanufactured aircraft, was delivered last week. There will now be a hiatus as Boeing delivers modernised MH-47Gs to US Army special operations, with CH-47F deliveries to resume in 2006 with new-build airframes. The company will deliver one F and four Gs this year, 20 Gs next year, 11Fs and 12 Gs in 2006 and 18 Fs and six Gs in 2007, when the modernisation programme will reach its full rate of delivering 24 aircraft a year.
Source: Flight International
