"three-eight-hotel" wrote in message
ups.com...
[...]
I heard that in some of the tight formation flying, they get as close
as 18 inches to each other. If this is true, and I have no reason to
believe it isn't, I have to wonder if they ever bump into one another?
If they were to bump into one another, would that be catastrophic, or
would they merely make contact and separate back into position? They
are all flying in the same direction, and at the same speed, so it's
conceivable that contact could be farily incidental.

A slight bump may just ding up the paint a little. Harder bumps may damage
something without affecting flight characteristics. Of course, really bad
bumps can kill all pilots involved.

The fact is, bumps do happen but very occasionally. In spite of the close
quarters, the pilots are VERY good at what they do, and even when they are
18 inches apart, practically never touch each other. If they do, it's
almost never more than a glancing blow.

Another question I had was regarding two Angels flying in opposite
directions and crossing by each other at a combined speed of 800 mph.
Do they have equipment on board that gives them precise situational
awareness, or do they use ground references?

All of their maneuvers are done by outside visual reference, either to a
ground reference or to the formation.

Of course, in the case of head-on passes, they fly the airplanes quite a bit
farther from each other than it appears to be on the ground. As you note,
in addition to being separated laterally, it takes a great deal of skill and
planning to arrive at show center at precisely the same time. IMHO, that
part is probably harder than keeping the airplanes from hitting each other.

Pete