{mosimage} For the past few days Navy pilots have practiced their maneuvers over the lake, familiarizing themselves with the local landmarks. The rumble and howl of their swift jets have echoed throughout the city; their mechanical thunder made the announcement the public has eagerly awaited: the Blue Angels are back in town.
Birth of the Blues
The Blue Angels were still in their infancy in 1952 when they made their first Seafair appearance. Only six years earlier, in April of 1946, Adm. Chester Nimitz issued a directive to form an aerial team that could boost Navy morale, demonstrate naval air power, and maintain public interest in naval aviation. There was, however, an alternative motive: the Navy needed to generate public and political support for a larger share of the shrinking post-war defense budget.
{mosimage}The newly formed group consisted of three aircraft and was simply called the Navy Flight Exhibition Team. The leader was Lt. Cmdr. Roy Marlin (Butch) Voris, a flight instructor and World War II fighter ace. Flying the Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat, pilots perfected their maneuvers in secret over Florida’s Everglades so that (in Voris’ words), “if anything happened, just the alligators would know.”
The weeks of training paid off when they thrilled spectators at their inaugural show on June 15, 1946. Their 15-minute performance over Craig Field, Florida, netted them their first trophy, now proudly on display at the team’s Naval Air Station Pensacola.
A few weeks later one of the pilots saw an advertisement in The New Yorker magazine for a popular nightclub called the Blue Angel. He mentioned this to Voris, who liked the name, and on July 19, 1946, the team officially adopted the designation.
The Blue Angels managed a few years of demonstration flying before being disbanded at the outbreak of the Korean War due to a pilot shortage. However, in 1951 they were re-commissioned and have since thrilled crowds both here and overseas.
Since inception, the team has grown from three planes to six and has given up its World War II propeller-driven fighters for high-speed jets. In 1986, the team acquired its present aircraft, the sleek F/A-18 Hornet.
{mosimage}Making of an Angel
As the planes became more complex the requirements for becoming a Blue Angel grew more challenging. A pilot must now log at least 1,250 flying hours—six to eight years of service—before an application to the Blue Angels can even be considered.
However, it’s not enough to simply know how to fly the plane. The aviator must also be able to endure the invisible force of gravity. For example, while an extreme carnival ride might subject riders to a 2-G force, making them feel twice as heavy as they really are, a Blue Angel performing loops and rolls may experience a force of up to 7.5-Gs. As a former Angel pilot said, “It’s like having a refrigerator sitting in your lap.” And while military fighter pilots wear special G-suits with bladders that repeatedly inflate and deflate, squeezing the body to prevent blood from rushing from the brain and causing unconsciousness, the Blue Angels fly without them. The suit would interfere with the control stick, and so the pilots learn to fly the show by alternately tensing and relaxing their stomach and leg muscles.
The Show
{mosimage}The Blue Angels arrive in their signature 18-inch wingtip-to-canopy diamond formation, their jet engines changing pitch from the familiar whine to a thunder-like rumble as they pass in review. The six-plane team quickly splits into the four-plane “diamond group” and the two-plane “opposing solos.” For the next hour the two groups perform alternately, demonstrating more than two-dozen maneuvers.
The diamond group demonstrates the pilots’ training and discipline, performing a series of graceful loops and rolls while maintaining a tight formation as if the four were a single plane. During these stunts they trail smoke from their planes to allow the audience to trace their path.
Meanwhile, the solo pilots demonstrate the aircraft’s flying capabilities. The displays vary from the slow, tail-sitting “high-alpha” pass to a 700 mph high-speed sneak pass. Their speedy maneuvers and tight turns form misty clouds of vapor over the wings and create streamers of white condensate that materialize from their wingtips.
For the audience the show ends much too soon when the planes regroup and—trailing smoke—perform their final pass. With the departure of the Blue Angels, the crowd begins to thin. Many of the spectators, eager to see them fly again, are already making plans to attend next years’ show.
Tony R. Diaz is a writer who lives in Tacoma, Washington.
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