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Old 18th Jul 2009, 02:05
  #171 (permalink)  
Jolly Green
 
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The US Marine Corps CH-53E (3 engine, 1980's procurement) fleet does have folding heads and tails. The CH-53D fleet (2-engine, 1960's buy) was designed with it, but may have been modified to the non-folding rotor head. The 53 is designed to operate off of a ship.

The the CH-47 was never designed to fold. The US Army has figured out how to make it fit best on a ship, but fold and spread is a manual operation requiring a lot of time and a huge deck footprint. I don't see any navy buying them, ever.
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