Blue Angels and Thunderbirds finish the airshow season with a rare joint display
November 7, 2024
The US Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron, the Thunderbirds, performed a joint flyover with the US Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron the Blue Angels at Pensacola, Florida, on October 30, 2024. The Thunderbirds and Blue Angels had kicked off the 2024 season training together in El Centro, California, and concluded the season with a rare joint air show at NAS Pensacola.
Naval Air Station Pensacola welcomed more than a quarter of a million people over the weekend for the Blue Angels homecoming airshow, one of Pensacola’s largest events. The display celebrated the 1969 Apollo 11 mission during which former US Navy Lt jg Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. The homecoming airshow wrapped up on Saturday 2 November, when more than 180,000 people attended the six-hour event.
The Blue Angels, formally named the US Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, fly the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and also operate a Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules as a support aircraft. Formed in 1946, the Blue Angels claim to be the second oldest aerobatic team in the world, after the Patrouille de France which formed in 1931. Each year, the team will fly an average of 60 displays per year at about 30 locations in the USA and one or two in Canada. This results in the team spending 300 days out of the year on the road. The team has six Navy and one Marine Corps demonstration pilots, half of whom change over each year.
The Blue Angels will not perform another public display until the Naval Air Facility El Centro Festival of Flight on 15 March 2025, but will immediately begin an intensive winter training period.
New pilots for the Blue Angels begin shadowing the pilots they will replace from about September, and begin training the day after the Pensacola Homecoming Airshow.
Outgoing team pilot Lt Cdr Amanda Lee said: “If you think about it, 50% of our delta, our F-18 pilots, are brand new every single year, to include a brand new boss next year. No sleep for the weary, the training must go on! We actually don’t get a lot of downtime. The new season picks up one day after the show. We actually start winter training here in Pensacola, (and) fly twice a day five days a week.”
The Blue Angels will soon head to its second home for winter training at El Centro, California, where they will typically fly twice a day six days a week.
