Boeing Rotorcraft Systems (formerly Boeing Helicopters and before that Boeing Vertol) is the former name of an American aircraft manufacturer, now known as Vertical Lift division of Boeing Defense, Space & Security.
Boeing Helicopters was created as Boeing Vertol when the Vertol Aircraft Corporation (formerly Piasecki Helicopter) company of Morton, Pennsylvania was acquired by Boeing in 1960; the Vertol name was an abbreviation for Vertical Take Off and Landing. Other names by which the division sometimes referred to itself in correspondence over the years were "Boeing Aircraft Company, Vertol Division" and "Boeing Philadelphia". The company was responsible for the design and production of the CH-46 Sea Knight and the CH-47 Chinook. The name became Boeing Helicopters in 1987, and the current name was adopted in 2002.[1]
By December 2006 Columbia Helicopters of Aurora, Oregon had purchased the Type certificate of the Boeing Vertol 107-II and Boeing Model 234 Commercial Chinook from Boeing.[2][3] The Columbia Helicopters is seeking FAA issuance of a Production Certificate to produce parts with eventual issuance of a PC to produce aircraft.
While the company's subway cars performed better, they did not continue in the railcar business, as competitors may have underbid on a key contract[citation needed] and the post-Vietnam War military build-up provided far more lucrative military contracts.
Jonathan M. Feldman (author), Gerald I. Susman and Sean O'Keefe, eds. "Chapter 18, The Defense Industry in the Post-Cold War Era: Corporate Strategy and Public Policy Perspectives", The Conversion of Defense Engineers' Skills: Explaining Success and Failure Through Customer-Based Learning, Teaming and Managerial Integration, pp. 281–318. Oxford: Elsevier Science, 1998: .