September 21, 2026: The Gamble That Learned to Fly

Podcast: bsnsHistory · bsnsBasics

Opublikowano: 2026-09-21

A financial gamble that nearly cost a company its independence ended up producing one of the most enduring aircraft in aviation history. On September 21, 1961, the helicopter that became the CH-47 Chinook took its first flight, the product of Vertol Aircraft Corporation's high-risk bet on two simultaneous, self-funded helicopter programs, a decision that led directly to Boeing acquiring the company just a year earlier. Two decades later, a single Royal Air Force Chinook nicknamed Bravo November became Britain's only heavy-lift helicopter during the Falklands War after the rest of the fleet was lost when the ship carrying it...