Flightline: 43/TBD

"user314" (user314) 09/09/2020 at 11:00 • Filed to: flightline, Planelopnik, planelopnik history, Blue Angels, thunderbirds, airshow, flight demo teams

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Thunderbirds and Blue Angels through the years. Not pictured are the Angels’ F6F and F8F props.

Unusually for one of my posts, those aren’t real planes. They’re 1/72 scale models, and they’re by the insanely talented Dan Hamilton. Go check out his posts on his !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! history collections.

Blue Angels F8F-1 Bearcats, flown from 1946 - 1950

A retired F9F-5, painted as Blue Angel #1

Blue Angels pilots astride their Cougars

The Angels transitioned to the F-4J in 1968

A-4F Skyhawks were part of the act from 1974-1986

The Blue Angels have flown F/A-18A, C and two-seat D models since 1986, and will be transitioning to F/A-18E Super Hornets in 2021

The Blue Angels at Oceana NAS

The Thunderbirds flew the F-4 Phantom from 1968-1973

In 1974, at the height of the oil crisis, the team switched to the T-38 Talon trainer

In 1992, the Thunderbirds upgraded to the F-16C/D

The Future?

The Future?

facw > user314 09/09/2020 at 11:04

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With apologies to the Air Force, it’s abundantly clear that the Navy has had cooler demo planes and a better livery.

user314 > facw 09/09/2020 at 11:09

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With the exception of the period where they both had Phantoms, I’d agree.

facw > user314 09/09/2020 at 11:13

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I’d give the Air Force the T-38 over the A-4, though simply being a trainer makes it a bit lame, maybe they should have found some F-5s instead.

ttyymmnn > facw 09/09/2020 at 11:39

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They fly a better show, too.

InFierority Complex > user314 09/09/2020 at 11:42

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The Colorado Air National Guard had their own demonstration team for 10 years or so known as the Minute M en. They started in 1947 as an unofficial trio of Mustangs that would travel to local shows.

The team kinda went on hiatus during the Korean war but became official in 1953 and named the Minute Men. They flew F -80Cs in a bare metal and red paint sch eme inspired by the CO ANG’s livery. Good luck finding a color photo of them.

IN 1958 the transitioned to F-86F-2s for about a year before the team got cut.

There was a single F-16 painted to honor the 50th anniversary

InFierority Complex > facw 09/09/2020 at 11:45

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The Thunderbirds livery has always just been way to spangly for my liking. I guess that is a weird criticism for something meant to literally be propaganda but there it is :P

VincentMalamute-Kim > facw 09/09/2020 at 13:01

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NVM, I’m getting the colors confused.

Urambo Tauro > user314 09/09/2020 at 13:11

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Can’t believe it’s been three years already, but I still can’t get over how coincidental it was for t he Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds to have crashes on the same day. Within t he same hour in fact, if I did the time zone math correctly.

user314 > InFierority Complex 09/09/2020 at 13:25

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Bare metal airplanes....

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I thought we had rules against posting pron on the main page....

/jk

ttyymmnn > InFierority Complex 09/09/2020 at 13:30

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The Blue Angels photograph better in the air, too. And on the ground.

ttyymmnn > user314 09/09/2020 at 13:33

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I even miss the old AA livery.

ttyymmnn > user314 09/09/2020 at 13:34

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Should have posted this earlier.

:D

user314 > ttyymmnn 09/09/2020 at 13:46

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I went looking for the original photo, since the one I found on tumblr was rather small, and I also like to have the right photographer if possible. I was also interested to see when all these planes were brought together, since that’s a rare event. I was actually shocked to find out that those are models.

ttyymmnn > user314 09/09/2020 at 13:55

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I had seen that photo before, so I knew they were models. But still, it’s damned convincing.

I read an article in a recent Air & Space Magazine about a guy in North Carolina who builds replica warbirds out of whatever he has lying around. The author said the builder makes the planes to about 91% scale: for every foot in the original measurement, the guy subtracts one inch. I’m not sure that’s the way it works....