The Boeing Company's [NYSE: BA] first production CH-47F Chinook helicopter successfully completes its first flight Oct. 23 from its Rotorcraft Systems facility in Ridley Park, Pa., where testers evaluated the aircraft's systems and structural performance. Boeing will deliver the new CH-47F to the U.S. Army for operational testing before being deployed in 2007.

After conducting the flight, Boeing test pilot Erik Kocher said, "The U.S. Army will have the most advanced, mission-capable heavy lift helicopter in the world. The CH-47F will provide crews with configurable flight displays for more efficient mission performance and a communications suite for greater situational awareness. The digital automatic flight control system will provide an enhanced and safer low speed flight capability, and the airframe enhancements will yield a safer and more reliable combat system."

The same cockpit system installed on the CH-47F and MH-47G Special Operations Chinooks will be used in the HH-47 proposed in the U.S. Air Force Combat Search and Rescue program and will include terrain following/terrain avoiding radar and an integrated forward looking infrared system for nap-of-the-earth and low-level flight operations in reduced visibility conditions.