Slightly Obese Chinook

[Crusty]

2x Chinooks flew over my house at about 14:45 today 23/7/21. medium altitude one of them had noticeably enlarged side fairings/sponsons whatever you call them, never seen that before...any ideas?

[Thunder]

The fat one will be one of the eight RAF HC.5's, which were initially delivered as HC.3's, I get confused with all the different Marks and their continual changing about.

[Ashleydaplanespotter]

The chunkier chinook will be a HC.5 model mate

[Crusty]

Cheers both, the difference was quite visible when the pair was directly overhead

[sschofield]

The fat one will be one of the eight RAF HC.5's, which were initially delivered as HC.3's, I get confused with all the different Marks and their continual changing about.

I think the HC.5 is broadly similar to the US Army CH-47SD special ops variant, whilst the HC.6 is more or less a CH-47F?

[Arthur Tee]

Obesity has nothing to do with it.
They’re Love Handles!