Boeing engine started in 1943 and Boeing's gas turbines were designated models 502 (T50), 520 (T60), 540, 551 and 553. Boeing built 2,461 engines before production ceased in April 1968. Many applications of the Boeing gas turbine engines were considered to be firsts, including the first turbine-powered helicopter and boat. Vertol Aircraft Corporation was acquired by Boeing in 1960, and was reorganized as Boeing's Vertol division. The twin-rotor CH-47 Chinook, produced by Vertol, took its first flight in 1961. This heavy-lift helicopter remains a work-horse vehicle to the present day. In 1964, Vertol also began production of the CH-46 Sea Knight.
Chinook wind Chinook wind Chinook winds , or simply Chinooks, are föhn winds in the interior West of North America, where the Canadian Prairies and Great Plains meet various mountain ranges, although the original usage is in reference to wet, warm coastal winds in the Pacific Northwest. Chinook is claimed by popular folk-etymology to mean 'ice-eater', however it is the name of the people in the region where the usage was first derived. The reference to a wind or weather system, simply 'a Chinook', originally meant a warming wind from the ocean into the interior regions of the Pacific Northwest of the