The Thunderbirds vs. The Blue angels...

So, wich team do you prefere? Do you favourice the navy or the Air force? Do you like the Thunderbirds who are flying with F-16 or the older Blue Angels who are using the modern F/A-18.

Blue Angels

At the end of the second world war, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz demanded an aviation team from the navy to preform shows to the audience. The point was to show everybody that "it wasn't just the air-force who could fly" and to keep the interest in navy aviation. It didn't even take a year untill the Blue Angles made their first flight in june 1946 at their home base Naval air station in Jacksonville.

The Blue Angels didn't go for the jackpot in the beginning, they started out with one singel fighter, the F-6F Hellcat wich was flown by Lt. Cmdr. Roy "Butch" Voris. But in only two months the Blue Angels had managed to create a group of flying planes that were flying in the so called "diamond" formation, In this show the F-6F were replaced by a newer model the F8F Bearcat.

In the late 1940 the Blue Angles took their first jet engined plane in use, the Grumman F9F-2 Panther. But because of the Korean war, the planes were called to the carrier USS Princeton to help their fellow aviators. The name was temporaliy changed to the "Satan's Kittens" in 1950.

One year later the planes and the aviators met in NAS Corpus Christi, Texas, only to discover that they had to exchange their planes to faster Panther, the F9F-5.

In 1954 they changed base again, this time to Florida. Again the planes changed to better variants this time to the Grumman F9F-8 Cougar.

20 years after the first flight, the Blue Angels decided to take more aircraft, the Grumman F11F-1 Tiger (1957) and the McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II (1969).

In December 1974 the team started to fly the McDonnell Douglas A-4F Skyhawk II. This garanteed further investsments to the team, and officers and maintaining personell were recruited. Cmdr. Tony Less, got the first official commander job.

On November 8th 1986 the Blue Angeles completed their 40th anniversary year. During the same year, the team recived a present. The McDonnels Douglas (Boeing) F/A-18, wich nowadays serves as the front line fighter in the USAF. The Bluea Angles have flown for more than 260 million spectators.

(press at text to se picture)

Blue Angels_1 Blue Angels_2 Blue Angles_3 Blue Angles_4 Blue Angles_5 Blue Angles_6 Blue Angles_7

Thunderbirds

The "Thunderbirds" team is very old, the whole project started in the early in 25 of May 1953, when the Air-force needed a demstrationo team to their new air-planes. Their base became Luke air-force base in Arizona, and they soon adapted the name "3600th air demostration unit" or the more known "Thunderbirds". The name to the team came originally from the indians, who told a legend about a sertain "Thunderbird", wich was a bird, sometimes a hawk, sometimes an eagle, but a bird who always posessed great fear and respect!

When it took to the skies, the earth trembled from the thunder of its great wings. From its eyes shot bolts of lightning. Nothing in nature could challenge the bird of thunder, and no man could stand againt it's powerful might

It was the best name that could possible have beens selected! Seven officers and 22 men were chosen to the first demostration team, mostly from the "Lukes" air-force base.

Maj. Dick Catledge was chosen to be the first leader. He flew, and tought the young trainees, so he was "one of the best" The Twins Bill and Buck Patillo (captains) were chosen to be the pilots who would fly left, and respectly right wing. Capt. Bob Kanaga, who got the worst job, the job were you had to fly between the two wingmen was also selected. Capt. Bob McCormick would fly as the "tail man". The first session would take about 15 minutes, ans as planned the "tail man" Capt. Bob McCormick, always started a bit earlier than the rest to check the weather.

The thunderbirds have flown with many planes, including the:

F-84F Thunderstreak

F-100 Super Sabre

F-105B

F-4

T-38

Nowadays the "Thunderbirds" are using the "F-16 Falcons".

(Press at text to see image)

Thunderbirds_1 Thunderbirds_2 Thunderbirds_3 Thunderbirds_4 Thunderbirds_5






[edit on 18-8-2005 by Figher Master FIN]

[edit on 18-8-2005 by Figher Master FIN]

I have seen the Blue Angles perform and was thoroughly impress by them but I have not seen the Thunderbirds so I can’t say which one is better.

I seen the blue's yesterday. I will see today till monday. The air show is here in Chicago.

I can go to the top of my building an see them perfectly. They are practicing.

I have seen both and they do the same moves. There might be a few things different in each show but The two groups are alike. They perform basic combat moves they were taught in flight school. The big difference is that they do it with another plane 24 inches away. I personally like the Thunderbirds the best but the Blue Angles take off is cooler. The 5 and 6 Jet when they go off and the one does the dirty roll and the other will sometimes pull right into a vertical climb. It has been a couple of years since I have seen them so their shows maybe different

Originally posted by Timcouchfanclub
I have seen both and they do the same moves. There might be a few things different in each show but The two groups are alike. They perform basic combat moves they were taught in flight school. The big difference is that they do it with another plane 24 inches away. I personally like the Thunderbirds the best but the Blue Angles take off is cooler. The 5 and 6 Jet when they go off and the one does the dirty roll and the other will sometimes pull right into a vertical climb. It has been a couple of years since I have seen them so their shows maybe different

yeah, the videos of the Blue Angles that I have seen are really cool, they take of nicely...

Originally posted by SpittinCobra
I seen the blue's yesterday. I will see today till monday. The air show is here in Chicago.

I can go to the top of my building an see them perfectly. They are practicing.

That's funny, when I'am on air-shows in Finland they cut off roads just so that poples can't see for free...

[edit on 18-8-2005 by Figher Master FIN]

Originally posted by WestPoint23
I have seen the Blue Angles perform and was thoroughly impress by them but I have not seen the Thunderbirds so I can’t say which one is better.

I'd like to see them too... Pity taht they don't ahve air-shows in Finland...

I can honestly say that they are both about equal in ability and the only differences are the planes and pilots themselves. The Airforce tends to be a bit more friendly when requesting material and information from them in regard to the team, like autographed posters, etc....

Originally posted by GrndLkNatv
I can honestly say that they are both about equal in ability and the only differences are the planes and pilots themselves. The Airforce tends to be a bit more friendly when requesting material and information from them in regard to the team, like autographed posters, etc....

Oh, I didn't know that... Nice point... But in the video that I saw, a teacher got permission to fly with the Blue Angles... They were very nice to her...

Originally posted by Figher Master FIN

Originally posted by SpittinCobra
I seen the blue's yesterday. I will see today till monday. The air show is here in Chicago.

I can go to the top of my building an see them perfectly. They are practicing.

That's funny, when I'am on air-shows in Finland they cut off roads just so that poples can't see for free...

[edit on 18-8-2005 by Figher Master FIN]

Funny, I go to the top of the building I live in, its 29 floors tall. The air show here is free.

Originally posted by SpittinCobra
Funny, I go to the top of the building I live in, its 29 floors tall. The air show here is free.

sounds like u live in a hotel., in anicase u luky to get first class seats to see the action. probably brought popcorn or video cam as well with u.

hmm.. I would say that the F-16s would be more manueverable than the hornets..
More SFPG..Stick force per gee..

It's hard to say who's better, but the blue angels certainly get the press don't they?

I suggest we all get together and petition them to do a one time only fly-it-till-the-wings-snap smackdown. Winner pulls the highest g, wingtips touching, hair on fire, stomach ulcer causing, vomit inducing stunt. I'd pay $5 and even up to $10 to see that, but not $25, that's too much.

Originally posted by deltaboy

Originally posted by SpittinCobra
Funny, I go to the top of the building I live in, its 29 floors tall. The air show here is free.

sounds like u live in a hotel.

, in anicase u luky to get first class seats to see the action. probably brought popcorn or video cam as well with u.

LOL, no I can give you my Address and you can look it up on google maps hehe.

I suggest we all get together and petition them to do a one time only fly-it-till-the-wings-snap smackdown. Winner pulls the highest g, wingtips touching, hair on fire, stomach ulcer causing, vomit inducing stunt. I'd pay $5 and even up to $10 to see that, but not $25, that's too much.

That would be awsome. Maybe even a little team dogfighting. OHHHH I would watch for weeks

When the Blue Angles came to my city the air show was free, anyone could just walk right in the Air Base and be 50 feet from the runway when they took off.

Originally posted by looking4truth
It's hard to say who's better, but the blue angels certainly get the press don't they?

I suggest we all get together and petition them to do a one time only fly-it-till-the-wings-snap smackdown. Winner pulls the highest g, wingtips touching, hair on fire, stomach ulcer causing, vomit inducing stunt. I'd pay $5 and even up to $10 to see that, but not $25, that's too much.

I've got a better idea. Load em up with Sidewinders and cannon ammo. Last one in the air wins! What would you pay to see that?

Originally posted by looking4truth
It's hard to say who's better, but the blue angels certainly get the press don't they?

I suggest we all get together and petition them to do a one time only fly-it-till-the-wings-snap smackdown. Winner pulls the highest g, wingtips touching, hair on fire, stomach ulcer causing, vomit inducing stunt. I'd pay $5 and even up to $10 to see that, but not $25, that's too much.

Funny, I'd do anything for that... And Jesus waht I'd give for a dogfight between the best pilots in the navy and the AF...

We had an airshow a couple of weeks ago over here, and the Blue Angels were a part of it. The night before the show, the entire detachment- pilots aircrew, plane mechanics, everyone- came out to a local park and signed autographs and just wandered around talking to the public. It was all free and anyone could just stop by! It was great I got to talk to all the pilots and got the autograph of every member of the Blue Angels. My kids will remember it for a long time.

The Next day we went to the airshow, here's some pics I took. Click on the image to get a larger size.

[edit on 8/18/2005 by Montana]

I don't think you can really split them, the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels are both highly skilled and very professional display teams, therefore I would put them both equal in joint 2nd place, everyone knows the Red Arrows are the kings of display flying.