By Ann Roosevelt
Boeing‘s [BA] CH-47F Chinook multi-mission, heavy-lift transport helicopter program continues to ramp up production to meet the need, officials said.
“We’ll be transitioning from [producing] four [helicopters] a month to five a month at the tail end of this year, and we will be at six per month in 2012,” Leanne Caret, Boeing vice president H-47 programs, said at a Jan. 12 rotorcraft luncheon. “That is a greater than 50 percent increase in our factory rate in less than two years, quite an accomplishment by the joint Boeing- government team.”
Last year, production increased from three aircraft per month to four per month.
In 2010, she said, Boeing delivered 42 production aircraft, “the most in 21 years.” Boeing has been transforming its production line, investing $130 million in the project. In October, Caret said the revamped facility had a new floor, walls, ceiling and environmental controls. Phase 2 completes late this summer–when production increases to five aircraft per month.
The CH-47F rotorcraft has a newly designed, modernized airframe, Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS) cockpit and Digital Automatic Flight Control System (DAFCS).
The CAAS greatly improves aircrew situational awareness, and DAFCS provides dramatically improved flight-control capabilities through the entire flight envelope, significantly improved performance, and safety in the harshest of environments.
Lt. Col. Brad Killen, Army product manager for CH-47F, traveled to Afghanistan to see what the users thought about the aircraft. “Every commander said ‘hey, you’ve got it right.'”
Some of the specifics pointed out to him were the ability to set down in a cloud of dust due to the technologies in the CAAS cockpit that increase situational awareness, allowing a stable, maintainable hover, and the ability to land in small increments with the DFACS.
A snapshot in time–the reporting period November-December 2010–showed the F-model Chinook with a mission capable rate of 83 percent in Afghanistan.
The rotorcraft is doing well, Killen said. “We’re helping save lives in theater,” Killen said.
At home, Boeing and the Army last year set up a modification facility at Millville Airport, N.J., consolidating several sites for Chinook upgrades. The southern New Jersey site is not far from Boeing Chinook production outside Philadelphia.
Operating under a five-year contract awarded in 2008, Boeing is working toward a second multi-year contract, Caret said. “Our plan is to have that proposal submitted by the end of 2011, with a focus to be on contract by the end of 2013.”
The CH-47G model, the special operations forces Chinook variant, is coming to a close. The last G remanufactured aircraft is being finished now, she said. The company will deliver 61 G models to meet urgent special operations requirements.
In parallel, the company is working on a contract for eight new-build G aircraft that are expected to be started later this year.
The H-47 program is global, Caret said. “We’re in over 20 countries with over 750 aircraft deployed.”
The company has a number of campaigns in the works for direct commercial sales and foreign military sales.
The program gets all the support it needs from the stakeholders, said Col. Robert Marion, cargo helicopter project manager. “It’s all about execution.”
The 7th unit equipped will be fielded this year, the 25th ID, who start training in February, he said. In May, training begins for the 12th Combat Aviation Brigade in Germany.