Blue Angels star in air show

[Otis Willie]

Blue Angels star in air show

(EXCERPT) , By Arlo Wagner THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Thousands of air-show fans returned to a sun-drenched Andrews Air
Force Base this weekend to see the latest in U.S. military planes,
helicopters and airborne armaments. A flyover by the Blue Angels
precision flying team was a thrilling — if loud — highlight of the
show yesterday afternoon. Seven-year-old Shelby Forse liked the jets,
but she put her hands over her ears as they screeched overhead at 700
mph.

"I don't want to fly," said the second-grader at Bass Hoover...

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---------------------------
Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com

[Krztalizer]

> Seven-year-old Shelby Forse liked the jets,
>but she put her hands over her ears as they screeched overhead at 700
>mph.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiight. Tell me when the BA flew over an airshow at 700 MPH.

Gordon

[Kevin Brooks]

"Krztalizer" > wrote in message
...
> > Seven-year-old Shelby Forse liked the jets,
> >but she put her hands over her ears as they screeched overhead at 700
> >mph.
>
> Riiiiiiiiiiiiight. Tell me when the BA flew over an airshow at 700 MPH.

Granted the majority of the show has to be done at lower speeds, but I don't
know if they *never* get close to that speed... I remember as a kid watching
the Thunderbirds every summer at Langley AFB, and one of the features of
their show was the "everybody has their attention on the four aircraft to
their front, and along comes the solo from behind the crowd screaming
overhead like the hammers-from-hell at *very* high speed" bit. Wouldn't be
surprised if the solo was not doing every bit of M0.9 (plus) during that
event.

Brooks

>
> Gordon

[Yeff]

On Wed, 19 May 2004 18:49:40 -0400, Kevin Brooks wrote:

> Granted the majority of the show has to be done at lower speeds, but I don't
> know if they *never* get close to that speed... I remember as a kid watching
> the Thunderbirds every summer at Langley AFB, and one of the features of
> their show was the "everybody has their attention on the four aircraft to
> their front, and along comes the solo from behind the crowd screaming
> overhead like the hammers-from-hell at *very* high speed" bit. Wouldn't be
> surprised if the solo was not doing every bit of M0.9 (plus) during that
> event.

I was sitting on the roof of our ops building in the PI when the
Thunderbirds performed there (on their way to China). I'd been escorting
some civilian contractors working on the AC when the show started and we
all took a seat to watch. I think every one of us almost jumped off that
roof when the solo bird came overhead at high subsonic speed.

--

-Jeff B.
yeff at erols dot com

[Mike Marron]

>"Kevin Brooks" > wrote:
>>"Krztalizer" > wrote:

>>Riiiiiiiiiiiiight. Tell me when the BA flew over an airshow at 700 MPH.

>Granted the majority of the show has to be done at lower speeds, but I don't
>know if they *never* get close to that speed... I remember as a kid watching
>the Thunderbirds every summer at Langley AFB, and one of the features of
>their show was the "everybody has their attention on the four aircraft to
>their front, and along comes the solo from behind the crowd screaming
>overhead like the hammers-from-hell at *very* high speed" bit. Wouldn't be
>surprised if the solo was not doing every bit of M0.9 (plus) during that
>event.

Those were the days. As an AF brat I recall the T-birds routines in
their F-100's and F-4's at various bases around the country and like
you said they were not only faster but much, MUCH louder
performances back then.

But I always thought the fly-byes back in the rockin' 60's at Kingsley
Field, Oregon were even more spectacular than the T-birds solo
routines.

Like clockwork every Friday afternoon at 6:00 pm an F-101B
(sometimes with my ol' man in the front office) would streak in low
at .9+++++ mach then pull vertical directly over the base command
post flagpole and smash straight up until it all but disappeared
from sight.

Given the One-O-Wonder's notorious pitch-up problem, to this day
I wonder just how close the pilots came to experiencing the deadly
phenomena while performing those incredible Friday PM fly-byes.

Ahh, fond memories indeed!

[Guy Alcala]

Yeff wrote:

> On Wed, 19 May 2004 18:49:40 -0400, Kevin Brooks wrote:
>
> > Granted the majority of the show has to be done at lower speeds, but I don't
> > know if they *never* get close to that speed... I remember as a kid watching
> > the Thunderbirds every summer at Langley AFB, and one of the features of
> > their show was the "everybody has their attention on the four aircraft to
> > their front, and along comes the solo from behind the crowd screaming
> > overhead like the hammers-from-hell at *very* high speed" bit. Wouldn't be
> > surprised if the solo was not doing every bit of M0.9 (plus) during that
> > event.
>
> I was sitting on the roof of our ops building in the PI when the
> Thunderbirds performed there (on their way to China). I'd been escorting
> some civilian contractors working on the AC when the show started and we
> all took a seat to watch. I think every one of us almost jumped off that
> roof when the solo bird came overhead at high subsonic speed.

I was at Moffett some years back ('86 maybe?) when the T-birds opened the show
with the Diamond passing overhead the crowd from behind, as the announcer was
directing our attention forwards. Highly unusual opening, and I don't know how
they got away with it. But that was before the Ramstein crash of Frecce
Tricolori. I also saw the latter at Moffett a year or two before the crash, and
man, those guys WERE nuts. I remember standing next to an F-14 jock, and he was
saying that it was damned dangerous. Still the best airshow I've ever seen; in
addition to the Italians, the Marineflieger Vikings in their last year in the
F-104G, a solo F-15, plus the usual Moffett goodies (P-3, QSRA, etc.) and IIRR
some civilian types. Still have the program somewhere.

You'd think an F-104 would be a poor airshow performer, but it's all a question of
showcasing the strengths of the a/c. One of the best parts of the Vikings routine
was to have No. 1 make a dirty, slow speed (well, 180 kts. is slow for a Zipper)
high alpha pass at 200 feet or so along in front of the crowd and then, just as he
gets to show center with everyone's total attention on him, No. 2 comes blasting
by UNDERNEATH HIM at 600+ in full burner, immediately hauling it into the vertical
and rolling his way up while No. 1 cleans up, pops the burner and hauls his a/c
into the vertical behind No. 2 while accelerating, ending up topping out at about
12kft, not far behind No.2. Man, the whole audience sitting in the bleachers rose
about a foot out of our seats when No. 2 came past with no warning.

Of course, compared to the '50s or earlier, as airshows have become safer and
safer they've also become a lot more boring. I would have loved to have seen some
of the SBAC displays in the '30s, late '40s and '50s, or some of the
Russian/Ukrainian home shows; OTOH, I can certainly do without being pulped by
aircraft parts or incinerated by jetfuel/avgas.

Guy

[Jeb Hoge]

Guy Alcala > wrote in message >...

> I was at Moffett some years back ('86 maybe?) when the T-birds opened the show
> with the Diamond passing overhead the crowd from behind, as the announcer was
> directing our attention forwards. Highly unusual opening, and I don't know how
> they got away with it.

I'm 95% positive they did that at the Tullahoma TN air show (Arnold
AFB 50th anniversary) a couple of summers back. Small-town show, with
the fast-movers flying out of Smyrna IIRC, but the T-Birds did a few
over-the-crowd passes, including the fast sneakover. Oh, and speaking
of sneakovers, the F-117 at Andrews last weekend pulled one of those
too. :)

> You'd think an F-104 would be a poor airshow performer, but it's all a question of
> showcasing the strengths of the a/c.

There were a pair of civilian Zippers flying the Tullahoma show, too,
and in a way, I almost wish they hadn't, because they've ruined
airshows for me for good (at least until the Raptor starts flying
them). I still can barely believe the howl those things made.

[Krztalizer]

>
>There were a pair of civilian Zippers flying the Tullahoma show, too,
>and in a way, I almost wish they hadn't, because they've ruined
>airshows for me for good (at least until the Raptor starts flying
>them). I still can barely believe the howl those things made.
>
>

One of those Zipper pilots was Wolfgang Czaia, one of the finest airmen I've
known. He was a GAF Fighter Wing commander and rode F-84s on up to current
things - he is a graduate of the USAF TPS school and is an active AA 747
Captain. His resume must read like a modern "history of flight" saga. Cool
guy - cool as they come.

v/r
Gordon
<====(A+C====>
USN SAR

An LZ is a place you want to land, not stay.

[Pete]

"Kevin Brooks" > wrote in message
...
>
> Granted the majority of the show has to be done at lower speeds, but I
don't
> know if they *never* get close to that speed... I remember as a kid
watching
> the Thunderbirds every summer at Langley AFB, and one of the features of
> their show was the "everybody has their attention on the four aircraft to
> their front, and along comes the solo from behind the crowd screaming
> overhead like the hammers-from-hell at *very* high speed" bit. Wouldn't be
> surprised if the solo was not doing every bit of M0.9 (plus) during that
> event.
>
> Brooks

I was at the Langley show over the weekend, and they did exactly that.
4-ship moving left to right in front of the crowd. As everyone's attention
was following the team off to the right, Solo comes screaming in from the
left. I don't know about 0.9+, but damn fast.

I'm not sure if I caught his pass on tape, but will be checking tonight.

Pete

[Kevin Brooks]

"Pete" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Kevin Brooks" > wrote in message
> ...
> >
> > Granted the majority of the show has to be done at lower speeds, but I
> don't
> > know if they *never* get close to that speed... I remember as a kid
> watching
> > the Thunderbirds every summer at Langley AFB, and one of the features of
> > their show was the "everybody has their attention on the four aircraft
to
> > their front, and along comes the solo from behind the crowd screaming
> > overhead like the hammers-from-hell at *very* high speed" bit. Wouldn't
be
> > surprised if the solo was not doing every bit of M0.9 (plus) during that
> > event.
> >
> > Brooks
>
> I was at the Langley show over the weekend, and they did exactly that.
> 4-ship moving left to right in front of the crowd. As everyone's attention
> was following the team off to the right, Solo comes screaming in from the
> left. I don't know about 0.9+, but damn fast.
>
> I'm not sure if I caught his pass on tape, but will be checking tonight.

Haven't seen them in years now. I can remember seeing them as a kid at
Langley, from the time they were flying F-100's and F-4's through the T-38
and into the F-16 era (the last I saw at Kingsport, TN, having left the
Langley area before the transition to the current mount). I went to their
official website and found that they have not uploaded the page on the show
characteristics, so no real info on demonstration speeds are available
there. I did see an interesting photo of a Blue Angels F/A-18 on another
website during the Fort Lauderdale airshow, doing a high speed low altitude
pass with the shock wave being apprently visible towards the rear of the
aircraft, and a notation that he was doing "just under" M1.0...

Brooks
>
> Pete
>
>