The CH-47D Chinook, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan with the bullet scars to prove it, was accepted into the collection of the Australian War Memorial by its director, Dr Brendan Nelson, at EPIC just after 11am.

"I've been involved with this aircraft, and Chinooks in general, for the last 11 years," Sergeant Hartnett said.

"Each aircraft develops its own character. This one certainly has a heart and soul. To see it wind down for the last time is pretty emotional."

Centaur is now being dismantled by an army crew and will be taken to the AWM's Mitchell facility by road on Thursday evening.

The 5th Aviation Regiment, which operated the "chook" since it was delivered in 2000, has been re-equipped with seven of the latest Chinooks, the CH-47F, as part of a $720 million, 25-year, supply and service contract brokered in 2009.

To the casual observer the new machines, one of which escorted the CH-47D on Tuesday, look a lot like the old ones. They, in turn, are similar to the first models to come off Boeing's production line in 1961.

"This will likely be the first airframe design to be in service for a century," Sergeant Hartnett said. "There is nothing that does the same job. The design just keeps getting enhanced and enhanced. It's absolutely incredible the designers in the 1950s got it so right."

A veteran of four tours to Afghanistan with Chinooks, three as ground crew and the final one as a flight engineer in 2013, he said the machines delivered a sense of security when you went to war in a country where the flying conditions were even more dangerous than the human enemy.

"You don't have a lot of time to ponder all the other things that are going on around you," he said.

"Our primary role was to move cargo and people. We were always talking about the next place we were going to, how much fuel we had, anything that [had] happened with the aircraft [and] the mission."

With a 16 metre long fuselage [30.1 metres long with rotors fitted], a service ceiling of 6100 metres and the ability to lift more than 10 tonnes, Centaur, aka A15-202, is one of the largest additions to the memorial's collection in recent times.

Dr Nelson said the machine would be used to tell the story of the men and women who had flown aboard the Chinooks during what remains Australia's longest ever war.

Centaur's distinctive nose art, entitled "Good As Gold" and depicting a Marilynesque blonde wearing diamonds, bloomers, high heels and a cryptic smile, would be retained.

"This is about preservation, not restoration," he said.