The Most Secret US Helicopter?



Since its introduction in 1962, the American CH-47 Chinook heavylift helicopter has been a critical backbone of combat support – carrying troops, supplies, tanks, and even other aircraft into warzones.

Its capabilities as a military transport are nearly unmatched and are well-known, but its surprising versatility has also seen it deployed in secret missions around the world.

The Chinook has played a role in a number of classified operations, including in the daring theft of a state-of-the-art Soviet helicopter during the Cold War and in the raid to capture Osama bin Laden.

It is rumored that a classified stealth version of the helicopter may have been used in the Bin Laden raid, giving a tantalizing glimpse at potential black project upgrades that could keep the Chinook flying well into the future…

Join Dark Skies as we explore the world of aviation with cinematic short documentaries featuring the biggest and fastest airplanes ever built, top-secret military projects, and classified missions with hidden untold true stories. Including US, German, and Soviet warplanes, along with aircraft developments that took place during World War I, World War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War, and special operations mission in between.

As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Skies sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect and soundtracks for emotional impact. We do our best to keep it as visually accurate as possible.

All content on Dark Skies is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas.

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50 thoughts on “The Most Secret US Helicopter?”

  1. Can you imagine if the Chinook and the Hercules were never designed, both are decades old but are still really integral to many countries militaries and used in so many different ways that it's uncountable.

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  2. Also, all these knuckleheads talking about a piece of hardware like it's their family member (and forgetting that the business of war is pure hell) just cracks me up, it's sad actually.

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  3. Nonsensical narrator.

    There is nothing to replace a CH-47 (or variant) other than another CH-47.

    Production will certainly extend beyond all of the supposed 'End' dates, because its a platform that's much in demand.

    Upgrade programmes exist for older airframes, so they just keep on going.

    If all of its capabilities, longevity is probably its greatest…

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  4. You always, almost without fail, let yourselves down with your poor video discipline – do you let the work experience office girl chose the clips? and she thinks anything with two rotors must be a Chinook? and showing an aircraft piston engine (Wright Cyclone?) when mentioning the turbine? did she think "that looks complicated, must be a jet engine?". You do the same with your seas videos (destroyers for cruisers/battleships, nuclear subs for U-boats, modern for WW2) why can't you put in the small effort to get it right? Don't you care? no pride?

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  5. Why show a radial engine? Why, after the initial introduction, do you show so much footage of 46's when all the discussion is about the 47. You do this far too often and it needs to stop.

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  6. I love how they keep showing pics of the CH-46 and CH-47 interchangeably. Come one Dark, forget the crayon eaters. They bought the wrong bird, and retired it already. Army bought the right one and will keep them flying for nearly 100 years!

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  7. Man i was a critic of yours in the past about you speaking to fast and pausing oddly (odd to me probably normal for most) nut you have stepped up your game man. Great video and exciting telling of information. I was wrong before and apologize for that.

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  8. WHOP! WHOP! WHOP! You can hear the hydraulics winding and grinding before hearing the rotor system. I was a student at Spartan in 2017. I heard a load rumble and shaking of the building when in class that day. I asked to the instructor to dismissed for a short break. I said to myself, "I know that sound is!". I went outside to see 3 × Ch-47F shutting down for cold refuel. My aircraft trade school was right to Tulsa Int'l and the airfield. Cool story!

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  9. Get Chinooks flying past our house quite often at night following the motorway , always run out when I hear one coming.
    It always amazes me how quiet a Chinook can be when it's down low in the terrain.

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  10. I believe the stealth modification on the Chinook is the fitting of much quieter rotor blades, the standard models fly on training missions close to my area of the UK at night and i have become used to the sound, a few years ago while camping out near the training ground i witnessed a Chinook arriving without the usual rotor wash sound, it was'nt silent but it was definately a lot quieter than normal, usually you can hear them from miles away, this one arrived almost unexpectedly.

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  11. As an ex Chinook engineer of 20+ years it is quite anoying for a video about Chinooks to be half full of CH-46s. I realise it has vague similarities to a CH-47 but isn't that hard to spot the difference if you just count the number of undercarriage legs 😄

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  12. My AC-130s were nextdoor to the 160th's Chinooks in Bagram. We did a little "show and tell" where we brought their guys onto our aircraft and toured them around and then they did the same for us. It's probably one of the most well thought-out aircraft I've seen. And there were multiple times they came back from missions shot up, but they never failed to make it back

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  13. A video about the CH47 Chinook, yet I see multiple clips showing CH46 Sea Knights. Though similar, they are different. I'm just saying as an experienced Marine base at a helicopter base, I noticed 😄

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