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“The Blue Angel nightclub was a big thing in its day. I think it took up a whole block. Four orchestras, eight or nine bars, it was massive. I said, ‘Gee, that sounds great! The Blue Angels. Navy, Blue, and Flying!,” Lt. Cmdr. Roy “Butch” Voris, first Blue Angels Leader.

At the end of World War II, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Chester W. Nimitz ordered the formation of a flight demonstration team to keep the public interested in naval aviation.

In a short three months, the Navy Flight Exhibition Team performed its first flight demonstration on Jun. 15, 1946, at their home base, Naval Air Station (NAS) Jacksonville, Florida. Lt. Cmdr. Roy “Butch” Voris led the team and flew the Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat.

According to the official website of the US Navy Blue Angels, the new Navy Flight Exhibition team was only the second formal flying demonstration team to have been created in the world, since the Patrouille de France was formed in 1931.

But let’s face it, “The Flight Exhibition Team” is not a very catchy name. As told by Nicholas A. Veronico in his book The Blue Angels a Fly-By History, to find a new name, the team ran a contest throughout the training command. “We were getting hundreds of names back, but not a one grabbed us like we wanted to be grabbed:’ Voris said. “I got a call to go up to the staff, this time to meet with the chief of staff, Captain Bill Ginter. He asked how the name contest was coming. I told him that we were just not finding anything right yet, but that I was sure we would get something soon. Ginter told me he had one for me to consider, the Navy’s Blue Lancers. Something rang a bell—I remembered that his son had submitted this one. I said, ‘Yeah, it’s got a ring to it, hasn’t it Captain?’ He asked me to give it serious thought, and I knew what he meant.

“We were going to go to New York for a show and Wickendoll, who was my number two man, was looking through the New Yorker magazine,” Voris recalled. We were sitting having a scotch in my room at the BOQ and he said, ‘I’ve got it, boss. I asked what he meant. He was looking at a column called Goings On About Town and the nightclubs are all listed. The Blue Angel nightclub was a big thing in its day. I think it took up a whole block. Four orchestras, eight or nine bars, it was massive. I said, ‘Gee, that sounds great! The Blue Angels. Navy, Blue, and Flying!”

When they arrived at Omaha, Nebraska, for the air show in July 1946, they told the aviation press of their Blue Lancers versus Blue Angels dilemma. The press agreed to help. After the show, headlines touted the team’s performance with Blue Angels in quotes.

“When I got back to Jacksonville with the team, I was summoned up to Ginter’s office. Dispatches had come in congratulating the command on the performance of the team. Ginter asked, ‘What’s this Blue Angel stuff?’ I told him I did not know and that l had heard some comment, from somebody in the press, saying they are just like Blue Angels:’ Voris said. Captain Ginter knew he had been hoodwinked, but there was nothing he could do.

In the 1940’s, the team thrilled audiences with precision combat maneuvers in the F6 Hellcat, the F8 Bearcat and the F9 Panther. During the 1950’s, they refined their demonstration with aerobatic maneuvers in the F9 Cougar and F-11 Tiger and introduced the first six-plane delta formation, still flown to this day. By the end of the 1960’s, the Blue Angels were flying the F-4 Phantom, the only two seat aircraft flown by the delta formation. In 1974, the team transitioned to the A-4 Skyhawk, a smaller and lighter aircraft with a tighter turning radius allowing for a more dynamic flight demonstration. In 1986, they transitioned to the F/A-18 Hornet, and on Nov. 4, 2020 the Blue Angels officially transitioned to the F/A-18 Super Hornet.

For more interesting news and info about US Navy Blue Angels and other display teams check out Aerobatic Display Teams website

Photo by U.S. Navy

At some point, the Crusader was considered as a replacement for Blue Angels Grumman F11 Tigers.

One of the most capable fighters of the post-World War II era, the F-8 Crusader was a sleek design that featured a gaping jet intake beneath the fuselage and a variable-incidence wing that could be raised to enable the aircraft to land and take off at slow speeds while maintaining excellent visibility for the pilot. In an era in which fighter pilots relied increasingly on missiles, the Crusader retained 20mm cannon, prompting its pilots to call it the “Last of the Gunfighters.”

Crusaders flew their first combat missions triggering cameras instead of weapons as part of the photo-reconnaissance flights over Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. F-8s also logged these missions as well as strike and combat air patrol flights throughout the Vietnam War, with Crusader pilots credited with the downing of eighteen enemy MiGs in aerial combat.

At some point, the Crusader was even considered as a replacement for Blue Angels Grumman F11F Tigers. But, as explained by Nicholas A. Veronico in his book The Blue Angels a Fly-By History, at that time (it was 1968) the Vietnam War was on and available aircraft types for the Blue Angels to transition to were limited. The team needed a new airplane but had not decided on what type. Then Team Leader Bill Wheat had considered the Vought F-8 Crusader, but the company was going out of the aircraft business just as the F11F production line was shutting down. Both aircraft were going to be hard to support in the near future. There were no F-8s available because of the conflict in Vietnam, and all of the McDonnell Douglas A-4s were required to meet the fleet’s commitments. In the end, the F-4 Phantom was chosen to replace the F11F with the Blue Angels.

But how would the F-8 be for the Blue Angels?

According to VFP62.com, there were discussions of F-8 fighter pilots on the F-8 for Blue Angels.

According to their assessment, there were several concerns.

The first concern was for an inverted flight. Aileron rolls were limited to just one at a time, and loops on takeoff were mentioned as the first limitations. Other pilots mentioned that the F-8’s variable incidence wing caused inherent problems of section takeoffs. “It was too hard to go through the wing-up/wing-down routine in real close formation and look good.”

The difficulty of flying F-8s in tight formations such as the Blues fly was another concern that F-8 pilots had. One pilot commented, “One finds out his own wing tip is almost touching the UHT of the other aircraft. You simply cannot get these machines that close. We had to fly farther out—it looked pretty good but is much harder to maintain the exact position. Just place two F-8 models together and this reality is easily seen.”

Moreover, the F-8 had a hard-lighting afterburner which might cause a section takeoff to look uncoordinated with one aircraft or another changing lead position.

However, many F-8 pilots believed that these issues could be worked out, as they were for the various aircraft used by the team. For instance, the flight control system of the A-4 was completely redesigned for their use.

One pilot put it in good terms: “Good airshow planes need three things: noise, smoke, and danger (imminent chance of an accident). F-8 had all in spades. I like the current F-18s but they don’t look very dangerous.”

For more interesting news and info about US Navy Blue Angels and other display teams check out the Aerobatic Display Teams website

Photo by AVSIM.net

Only 28 Hawk aircraft will be left in British service, the T2 variant.

The Royal Air Force (RAF) plans to retire its entire fleet of 76 Hawk T1 trainer aircraft, leaving only 28 Hawk aircraft in British service, the T2 variant, the UK Defence Journal reports.

The ‘Defence in a Competitive Age‘, the Defence Command Paper released on Mar. 22, 2021, states: “The Royal Air Force will retire equipment that has increasingly limited utility in the digital and future operating environment. This will include rationalizing older fleets to improve efficiency, retiring Typhoon Tranche 1 by 2025, and Hawk T1. We will enhance the new military flying training system with further investment in synthetic training that will deliver more capable pilots more quickly and more efficiently.”

No. 100 Squadron flies Hawk T1 jets in the aggressor role and the RAF Aerobatic Team Red Arrows uses the T1 as display aircraft. However, according to the Express, the famous aerobatic team has been saved from the axe in a defense review to be published in the week commencing Mar. 22.

“Though Ministry of Defence insiders have confirmed that the iconic team will not be felled next week, RAF sources insisted its days were numbered unless other streams of financial support could be found urgently. The Red Arrows has arranged a raft of sponsorship deals with some blue-chip brands, ranging from BAE, Barbour, and Breitling to Land Rover and Rolls Royce, worth just under a million pounds in total.”

In normal times the Red Arrows would perform around 25 shows a year charging £10,000-30,000 for thirty-minute daredevil spectaculars, which is paid directly to the MoD. It also helps to raise thousands of pounds for charity.

In 2019 the Red Arrows, which boasts 11 pilots and more than 100 engineers and support crew, undertook a triumphant 11-week tour of the US and Canada – its biggest ever – and is seen as a pillar for Brand GB and recruitment.

Moreover, as we have already anticipated last week, the RAF will also retire its C-130 Fleet by 2023. The ‘Defence in a Competitive Age’, says:

“The Royal Air Force will retire the BAe146 as planned by 2022 and take the C-130 Hercules out of service by 2023. The A400M Atlas force will increase its capacity and capability, operating alongside C-17 Globemaster and Voyager transport aircraft and tankers.”

According to insiders, major decisions will include cutting the number of Boeing E-7 Wedgetail surveillance aircraft from five to three and axing the purchase of 90 F-35 fighter jets to leave just 48 while the RAF focuses on developing the new Tempest.

Boris Johnson previously described this defense review as the largest review of its kind since the Cold War.

Photo by Cpl Andy Benson / Crown Copyright

For more interesting news and info about RAF Red Arrows check out Aerobatic Display Teams website

As shown by the main image of this post, the team is still flying one F/A-18 tandem seat Legacy Hornet.

Posted on Mar. 15, 2021, by 151st Air Refueling Wing on its Facebook page, the interesting photos in this post show a unit KC-135 Stratotanker delivering fuel to Blue Angels F/A-18s getting back home to Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola after they spent the last 3-months training at the team’s winter training facility at Naval Air Facility (NAF) El Centro.

Noteworthy, as shown by the main image of this post and as indicated by the arrow in the photo below, the team is still flying one F/A-18 tandem seat Legacy Hornet (the other twin seat F/A-18 trailing the formation appears to be an F/A-18F Super Hornet). If you know why the team is still flying one Legacy Hornet please contact us: we would like to update the post or write a new one with your info.

As we have previously reported, in 2018 Boeing was awarded $17 million to convert nine F/A-18E and two F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft into Blue Angel demonstration aircraft to replace the squadron’s McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornets. Two-seat Blue Angels have often been used for backseat ride-along flights for members of the news media and “key influencers” – people the US Navy sees as unofficial recruiters.

While the US Air Force (USAF) aircraft fleet primarily utilizes a receptacle at the end of a telescoping boom to transfer fuel during mid-air refueling, the aircraft of the US Navy, including the F/A-18s assigned to the US Navy Blue Angels, use what’s called a “Probe and Drogue” to deliver fuel. The KC-135 Stratotanker is capable of performing both methods.

U.S. Air National Guard photos by Master Sgt. John Winn

For more interesting news and info about US Navy Blue Angels check out Aerobatic Display Teams website