MH-47 Chinook

Each week seems to being a new aircraft of on kind or another to the front lawn of the museum. For several weeks now I have been looking at the 747-100 parked outside my office window (check earlier post for pics). Today brought an aircraft, or at least new to me. The MH-47 did a fly by at 1050A, these are always fun. And then it landed in front of my office a few minutes later.

The MH-47 Special Operations Aircraft (SOA) is the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment long-distance, heavy-lift helicopter, which is equipped with aerial refueling capability, a fast-rope rappelling system and other upgrades or operations-specific equipment. The MH-47 conducts overt and covert infiltrations, exfiltrations, air assault, resupply, and sling operations over a wide range of environmental conditions. The aircraft can perform a variety of other missions including shipboard operations, platform operations, urban operations, water operations, parachute operations, forward aerial refueling point (FARP) operations, mass casualty, and combat search and rescue operations. With the use of special mission equipment and night vision devices, the air crew can operate in hostile mission environments over all types of terrain at low altitudes during periods of low visibility and low ambient lighting conditions with pinpoint navigation accuracy.

Update:
A few museum employees wanted to watch the MH-47 take off. There is a small competition among the pilots as to whom does the most amazing fly-by. The fly-by we just witnessed was incredible. The MH-47 is a flat bottomed beast and it is amazing from 200 feet under it going 100mph. Seriously made my day.