Thunderbirds Flyover

[Peter in Fairfax, VA]

Fairfax, VA

[gene poremba]

 We are just a stones throw from the Goldsboro air base and the boys from there flew over our Hospital with a formation of F-15s to honor the first responders and medical personnel. Its great to hear the sound of freedom!.....Gene

[peabody]

Greater NYC was treated to formation flight by BOTH the Blues and the Tbirds….TOGETHER!

I don't recall it happening before.

That's why they call it GREATER NYC.

[kenneth cook]

            They both flew up my street the other afternoon. Quite cool and my daughter caught some cool video of them.

[Steve Scott]

Cool pic of both teams each in their 6 ship delta formation.

[Larry Renger]

Wow! Didn’t know the ever did that! Beautiful.

[Dan McEntee]

Cool pic of both teams each in their 6 ship delta formation.

     That's a cool shot, but it's all in the angles. Look at the size of the F-16 in relation to the F-18. The F-188 is a bigger airplane. There has to be at least 500 feet separation between the formations, but take the pic at the right angle  and they look closer. It would take a long to to practice a formation that tight of that many aircraft. They work all winter on 6 plane formations.
  Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee

[Steve Scott]

Wow! Didn’t know the ever did that! Beautiful.

Fairly common both teams will join up every few years.   Though I saw another photo of both these teams and the Canadian Snowbirds.

If you've seen videos of this series of flybys, you'll note a 13th aircraft nearby as a photo/chase aircraft.

[Steve Scott]

     That's a cool shot, but it's all in the angles. Look at the size of the F-16 in relation to the F-18. The F-188 is a bigger airplane. There has to be at least 500 feet separation between the formations, but take the pic at the right angle  and they look closer. It would take a long to to practice a formation that tight of that many aircraft. They work all winter on 6 plane formations.
  Type at you later,
  Dan McEntee

Definitely a few hundred feet of separation between the two teams but the photographer got the right angle where there is an aircraft in every 'hole'.  Telephoto lenses also 'compress' distance.

I believe next year the Blues transition to the Super Hornet which is about 25% larger than the legacy Hornets they've been flying for 30+ years.  In fact, I think they are the only squadron still operating the legacy Hornets and parts are getting pretty tough to find.  The Super Hornet has much better thrust/weight ratio and will allow the team to add new stuff to the show to take advantage of that.

I saw an F-35 demo at an airshow in Duluth a couple of years ago.  The single F135 Pratt & Whitney on the F-35 puts out more thrust than the twin GE F404 engines on the legacy Hornets.  The Super Hornet uses the GE F414 engine.

The JATO takeoff by the Blues' Fat Albert was cut out years ago - they JATO bottles haven't been manufactured since Vietnam and the team used up all they had.

[Ken Culbertson]

Fairly common both teams will join up every few years.   Though I saw another photo of both these teams and the Canadian Snowbirds.

If you've seen videos of this series of flybys, you'll note a 13th aircraft nearby as a photo/chase aircraft.

I was stationed at Nellis on and off for a couple of years.  The Birds and Blues would do a joint rehearsal of next season's shows each year in their off season.  I heard they did the same in Pensacola. 

Ken

[Peter in Fairfax, VA]

Chase

[Steve Scott]

Thunderbird #5 is a female pilot - one of many both teams have had.  Major Michelle Curran is also a local, an ROTC graduate of St. Thomas University in Saint Paul, MN.

Wednesday, May 6 the MN Air National Guard will do a set of flybys using C-130 and F-16s.