Boeing CH-47 Chinook had remained in both production and frontline service for over 50 years. The military version of the helicopter has been subject to numerous export sales from nations across the world, typically using it as heavy-lift rotorcraft in a military context; the U.S. Army and the Royal Air Force (see Boeing Chinook (UK variants)) have been its two largest users. The civilian version of the Chinook is the Boeing Vertol 234. It has been used for a variety of purposes by a range of different civil operators, having often been used for passenger and cargo transport, along with niche roles such
Billy Chinook in the Oregon Country. Chinook was an orphan and lived at the mission. In the summer of 1843, then-Lieutenant John C. Frémont and Kit Carson visited the present-day Bend, Oregon and The Dalles, Oregon areas. Chinook was 16 to 19 years old at the time and was recruited by Frémont as a guide. The Frémont expedition (Frémont's second) then explored central Oregon and the Klamath Basin, and further into present-day Nevada and California areas through July 1844. In 1845 Frémont traveled to Washington, D.C. with Chinook. While there, Frémont awarded a medal to Chinook which bore the likeness of the