Ex-Disney Employees Helped The Thunderbirds Create Their New Shortened Air Show Routine
For the first time in four decades, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demo team has completely rewritten its display program.
For the first time in four decades, the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demo team has completely rewritten its display program.
The teams unveiled the massive formation while the Thunderbirds are visiting the Blue Angels at their winter training home at NAF El Centro.
The team’s training worked and the formation recovered from the scare remarkably fast.
The clip shows all the work being done by the Raptor’s huge control surfaces and thrust vectoring nozzles to make the maneuvers happen.
Demonstration teams are fixture of modern military aviation, performing routines at airshows and other events to help with recruitment and otherwise just promote engagement between the service that operates the aircraft and the public. These units typically draw on the skills of expert pilots to perform often iconic routines with unique or otherwise impressive aerobatic maneuvers. A prime example of this is the “plugged-in” barrel roll that Royal New Zealand Air Force’s now-retired A-4K Skyhawks used to perform.
Blue Angels will be relinquishing their Legacy Hornets for Super Hornets in the not so distant future according to DoD contract announcement.