Rcpilot

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Here's some full scale Blue Angels pics I got in an email.

Check out those 2 big buildings in the background in the first pic. These aren't ALL blue Angels jets--but they are all cool.

Rcpilot

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A couple more:

Rcpilot

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Makes me want to get a ducted fan F-18.[8D]

BaronSchwab

nice

tailskid

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Good job of collecting these shots....thanks.

Jerry

Rcpilot

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I didn't collect them. I got them from my dad in an email yesterday. All I did was save them to My Pictures and then load them up here.

ballgunner

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I'm Air Force from the ground up but I've got to give it to the Blue Angels or any other pilot who lands on carrier. The Thunderbirds are good but the Blues outclass every other precision team in the world.

BaronSchwab

Can't beat them.

Gringo Flyer

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In the first post on the bottom left there is a pi of the Blue Angel in a high alpha flight close to the ground.

A few months ago I went to Pensacola and saw them practice and when the F18 entered into high alpha flight it was incredible. I didnt realize that an F18 could do that.

Those guys are amazing. The precision they fly with is unbelievable.

JollyPopper

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For any of you folks who enjoy good fiction, there is an author out there named James W. Huston. He is a graduate of TOPGUN and flew F14s off the USS Nimitz with the Jolly Rogers, among other things. He has a book out entitled "The Shadows of Power" in which he goes into detail as to how that high alpha maneuver is done. The Blues call it "low transition". It involves the pilot accelerating to 130 knots and then lifting the nose off. Immediately after liftoff, he raises his gear and lowers the nose so that he is flying level just above the runway, still accelerating rapidly. At approx. 400 knots, he hauls back on the stick and goes vertical. The amazing thing and tricky part of it is that the F18 rotates on its axis, which is just aft of the wings. That means that the tail of the aircraft actually DROPS, and if he is below about 20 feet when he rotates and goes vertical, the exhaust nozzles can actually drag the runway. Probably not a good thing to do at 400 knots. Any of you guys that read and enjoyed Tom Clancy and Dale Brown will like James Huston.

viperdude

Blue angels rule the airshow skies, but i have to say, some pilots for the navy itself can make them look pretty sad

Mopzilla

Nice shots.. I saw them at San Francisco most recently. Everything they did was super smooth. The pilots are volunteers are don't even get paid overtime for flying as blue angels. They sure are a great recruiting machine!

bdavison

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I see them all the time. Flying over my house, at the beach...you cant get away from them down here. I wish just once the thunderbirds would come down here for an airshow. The F-16 will fly circles around that overweight F-18.

BOB MOORE

I had the Honor to serve as a member of the Blues Maintence team 1952-1954. The team was flying F9F 5 Gruman Panthers. We also had two F7U1 Chance Vaught Cutless's in 1952, We also had a F8F Bearcat for a short time > Then we had aTV2 (T 33). I was a Airframe Mechanic. I was the painter. The Boss then was Butch Voris the man who started the team in 1946. BOB MOORE

BOB MOORE

Here is pictures of Blue Angels 1953

bigchap

can't agree i'm afraid!the red arrows are unsurpassable,i'm not just being patriotic,it's a fact.

bdavison

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Anyway...just to contribute to this thread....heres a Blue's pic.

Edit: DOH....didnt realize that one was already up here.

Oh well...Ill post more later.

The coolest maneuver you can do in a F-18 Super Hornet is a Loaded "G" High Alpha roll....only seen one pilot do it, and it wern't no Blue's pilot. One of the Navy's finest pulled it off down here at NAS Pensacola.

Ive managed to pull it off in Aerofly Pro with the F-16 Falcon in there, but its hard....needs more thrust.

bdavison

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Ok, just to make up for my post above....

Here are some good Blues pics.

bdavison

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And here's the best one of all.....A Blue's Jet going supersonic.