During the Viet Nam War, the U.S. military utilized most of its modern weapons such as rifles, shotguns, mortars, anti-tank weapons, anti-aircraft weapons, chemical weapons, armoured vehicles, self-propelled guns, fighters, bombers and so on. Among them, the CH-47 Chinook helicopter was known as an effective heavy troop and supply transport aircraft in the Vietnamese theatre of war with a poor road system back then.
The CH-47 Chinook helicopter, dubbed as “Beast of the Sky,” is a twin-engined, tandem rotor, heavy-lift helicopter designed and manufactured by Boeing Integrated Defense Systems in 1962. By February 1966, 161 Chinooks were handed over to the U.S. military. In 1965 the 1st Cavalry Division arrived in Viet Nam, deploying one battalion of Chinooks in airlifting troops, artilleries, armoured vehicles and other military equipment to battlefields.
A CH-47 Chinook helicopter currently on display at the War Remnants Museum. Photo courtesy of the War Remnants Museum.
The CH-47s used in Viet Nam were generally armed with two M134 six-barrel rotary machine guns and one 7.62-mm M60 machine gun. One of the fastest helicopters in the U.S. military, it can reach a maximum speed of up to 298km/h. Additionally, it has the combat radius of 370km, service ceiling of up to 6,500m and velocity of 995 metres per minute.
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A CH-47A used by the 1st Cavalry Division in the Siege of Plei Me near Pleiku, Viet Nam, January 20, 1966. Source: Printerest.
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One of CH-47s' main missions was to transport artilleries to battlefields in the highlands. Source: Printerest.
Nguồn: Printerest
Chinooks are capable of carrying from 33 to 55 soldiers or a cargo weighing 10,800 kilogrammes at the maximum. The flexibility of this helicopter is its ability to unload goods and soldiers easily without landing. Therefore, one of its most important tasks was to transport artilleries to the highlands and provide them with sufficient equipment and ammunitions. In addition, a CH-47 is able to airlift two UH-1 helicopters in an air rescue mission. In the Viet Nam War, especially in the peak year of 1969, 22 Chinook units with 750 helicopters of its kind were put into operation, but about 200 of them lost permanently.
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The Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe is an American heavy-lift helicopter designed by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation for the U.S. Army. It is named after Tarhe, an 18th-century chief of the Wyandot Indian tribe. Initial work on this helicopter began in 1958, and was completed in 1962. This type of helicopter was created at the time of the publicity of the Airborne Warfare theory to meet the requirements of transportation and direct support for infantry in battlefields. A CH-54 is able to carry a maximum load of up to nine tonnes of cargo and change into several different versions depending on each purpose of use. As a result, CH-54 was usually called “Humorous Incredible Hulk” or “the Sky-crane.”
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From the late 1960s, the U.S. Army began to bring CH-54s to Viet Nam and commonly used them to transport oversized cargo to the battlefields. The CH-54 crew was made up of five people. It had maximum speed of 240km/h, cruise speed of 185km/h and range of up to 340km. CH-54's wingspan was 27m long with six blades and an empty weight of only 7.8 tonnes, while it could take off with a maximum load of 17 tonnes. Though its remarkable rate to climb was extremely fast (it currently holds the record for the fastest climb from 3,000m to 6,000m and 9,000m), CH-54s have a big body, heavy load, slow speed, poor flexibility and short flying range.
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A CH-54 Tarhe being assembled at Nha Trang Air Base on the field combat condition in April 1967. Source: An ninh thủ đô (The Capital’s Security) newspaper.
The fuselage of CH-54s has a unique design like a pincer which can be detached, making it highly flexible. The fuselage boom allowed the plane to attach an oversized payload beneath instead of bringing it inside the cabin like other aircraft. Unlike UH-1 and CH-47 which were brought into Viet Nam in original forms with their separated rotors, a CH-54 was disassembled into three parts and then re-assembled in the battlefields. The rear which is attached to the engines, the control cabin and the rotors were separated, making it convenient for loading into the cargo transport aircraft.
The bus-like cabin of a heavy-lift helicopter of U.S. Army, which could carry 40 soldiers and sufficient equipment. Source: kienthuc.net.
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A Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe is lifting a CH-46 in Viet Nam, February 22, 1969. Source: Printerest.
The main task of CH-54s in Viet Nam was to transport downed large-scale helicopters which needed to land immediately. Additionally, it could be used as a bomber; and a transporter supplying heavy military equipment for infantry units. However, with its limited flexibility, the efficiency of CH-54s in Vietnamese battlefields was not really high. Since 1991, CH-54s have been used in commercial civilian work to transport goods via air.
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Khe Sanh, Viet Nam on April 7, 1968 – A helicopter of the 1st Cavalry Division is repairing a destroyed bridge at Khe Sanh to cross the border. Crossing border was a part of Operation Pegasus in the Viet Nam War. Source: Printerest.
A CH-54 of the 1st Cavalry Division is carrying supplies to the Laramie landing field in An Khê, Viet Nam. Source: Printerest