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Originally posted by waynos
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.
Originally posted by Montana
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]
Originally posted by elevatedone
I was in Myrtle Beach SC last summer and the BA's were going to be performing at an airshow the upcoming weekend. I knew that they always fly in a day or two early to practice, so there we were driving down the main drag, and out of no where, about 300 ft or so over the beach.... it was amazing....
Originally posted by waynos
Yes, of course I am biased FMF, but it is nonetheless the truth
There was a programme about them (as there often is) where they flew in the USA and pilots of the Tbirds and Blue Angels interviewed, intercut with footage of Red Arrows manouvres, where the US guys unanimously praised the Red Arrows and acknowledged them as the 'guys to beat'. Of course they may just have been polite but then agaion it mmight be their genuine professional opinion?
The reason why we use trainers instead of fighters is entirely down to cost, the last frontline fighter to be flown by a UK display team was the Lighning and the treasury shat itself and made sure it wouldn't happenm again.
The belief that the teams that use fighters must be better is a misnomer as all display flying is carried out at subsonic speed anyway so the Arrows are performing at the same speeds but with more aircraft and with tighter manouvers, this is a fact that was acknowledged by the other pilots in the programme.
Originally posted by Zaphod58
Actually there are quite a few USAF pilots that land on carriers every day now too. There's at least one squadron of EA-6Bs that flies off carriers that are flown by USAF pilots.