Howard, a 27 Squadron crewman, watched the movie Top Gun and wanted to be a fighter pilot. The Chinook changed his mind. Weighing 13 tons (nearly 12 metric tons) before fuel or cargo is added, the helicopter provides its own stirring acrobatics, leaving civilians awestruck at public demonstrations, he said. The Chinook climbs with its nose pointed straight up in the air or dives directly at the ground, rotor blades in a full vertical position in both cases, before banking sharply and pulling out of these maneuvers. Spectators don’t expect a medium-to-heavy-lift helicopter to behave in such a manner, according to Howard. “We take the aircraft and fly it to its limits,” Howard said. “It’s a crazy adrenaline rush. It’s like a roller coaster for 15 minutes. It shows the public how agile it is when it seems like a flying bus or coach. People are really surprised when they see it.” To keep them flying, Boeing has 120 employees who work at Odiham alongside RAF personnel, among them mechanics and test pilots. Boeing keeps its own hangar and stations people in each of the other maintenance facilities. Chinooks are delivered by ship from Boeing’s helicopter production factory in Philadelphia and brought to the Odiham hangars for extra systems installation unique to the RAF before entering service. 22 | BOEING FRONTIERS “There’s a lot of passion for the Chinook in the UK,” said Robert Grant, Boeing operations manager at Odiham. “There’s a huge investment in the Chinook. They want Boeing here.” Chinooks are serviced after every 200 hours of flight because of the operational stress encountered, especially in harsh environments. A close watch is kept for structural fractures caused by high vibration or surface corrosion created by saltwater or desert sand. The Chinook can withstand a lot, though, according to RAF maintenance crews. “I like working on it,” said Sgt. Howard Hague, an RAF mechanic and team leader. “What you see is what you get. You can test it in all environments. It’s a good bit of equipment for what it does, for what we need it to do.” Odiham has a work bay devoted to blade maintenance. Made of metal and composite materials, Chinook blades are 30 feet (9 meters) long, 60 feet (18 meters) when measured in tandem and 99 feet (30 meters) tip to tip when putting the dual rotors together. The two sets of blades rotate in opposite directions. Another bay is set aside for Chinook panel repair. Pete Brown has worked there for 18 years, first as an RAF technician and now for Boeing. The shop has a crossover of military and Boeing personnel. “It works really well as a mixed
Frontiers September 2016 Issue
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