Bravo November

[Tin basher]

Perhaps the worlds most famous Chinook BN is to be retired to Cosford museum and is planned to be on display in time for the falklands 40 year anniversary.

Classic Chinook set to become latest exhibit at RAF Cosford

A legendary helicopter is heading to the Royal Air Force Museum at Cosford where it is set to become a major part of commemorations planned to mark the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War.

www.shropshirestar.com

 

[Late & Tired]

It would be a great addition, and an opportunity to reflect on the type's contribution, especially this one; (although it now bears a similarity to Trigger's famous broom).

 

[Oldstacker]

When you consider the longevity of the type in service is >40 years.... That would be like having Lancasters still operational in the 1980's or Spitfires in the 1970's....

Some platforms are just right for their time and others just keep getting modified and modified.... The Canberra achieved over 50 years...

 

[busby1971]

Shackleton managed 40 years as well, unique use case.

The US B52 and U2 are quite long serving IIRC

 

[Rigga]

Helicopter frames are just a shed really - built to support the floor and the roof (transmissions) so fairly stress free compared to FW and pressurised stuff. Nothing that can't be fixed or modified for dozens of years. The thing that drives them to be replaced is mostly the lack of OEM support. In this case it was just too many Chinnys left at the end of Afghanistan…and this one, in particular, needed too much work to fix it.

 

[Cat Techie]

Helicopter frames are just a shed really - built to support the floor and the roof (transmissions) so fairly stress free compared to FW and pressurised stuff. Nothing that can't be fixed or modified for dozens of years. The thing that drives them to be replaced is mostly the lack of OEM support. In this case it was just too many Chinnys left at the end of Afghanistan…and this one, in particular, needed too much work to fix it.

Was you down the Falklands with November Slut?

 

[Stevienics]

The thing that drives them to be replaced is mostly the lack of OEM support.

The thing that drives them to be relpaced is that they shake themselves to premature old age - in the case of BN as well as the other half dozen or so we operated from PSC, this manifested itself as having to replace at least 1-2 Tx shaft bearing supports on every shift as the amounts lifted were sometimes, shall we say, a tad more than recommended and for all the available daylight hours. The good thing about the CH47 was that it was at least more robust than the Puma - which wouldn't have last 5 minutes.

 

[Rigga]

The thing that drives them to be relpaced is that they shake themselves to premature old age - in the case of BN as well as the other half dozen or so we operated from PSC, this manifested itself as having to replace at least 1-2 Tx shaft bearing supports on every shift as the amounts lifted were sometimes, shall we say, a tad more than recommended and for all the available daylight hours. The good thing about the CH47 was that it was at least more robust than the Puma - which wouldn't have last 5 minutes.

I love your conclusions - but, if there was a need for frames in action this one would have been fixed/bodged and pushed out again…