Blog

U.S. Navy Blue Angels

November 4th, 2022 by Brom Taulborg

The U.S. Navy Blue Angels is the oldest air demonstration team in the United States and the second oldest in the world, after the French air demonstration team, the Patrouille de France. The Blue Angels have been famously known as the Blues. The Blue Angels served briefly in Korea on the U.S.S. Princeton (CLV-23), but since then, they have never seen combat, though they can be made combat ready in 72 hours.

The Blue Angels support aircraft have been in airshows since 1956 usually with JATO takeoffs

The Blues have had support aircraft since nearly the beginning with the task of transporting the mechanics, supplies, etc. Starting in 1956 the team was assigned their first transport aircraft, the Douglas R5D Skymaster, which was put in the airshows with JATO takeoffs (a tradition that continues to this day). In 1970 the team was assigned the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, which was quickly nicknamed "Fat Albert" and is flown by an all-Marine crew.

The Blue's have had 26 pilots killed since 1946 with one of them KIA in the Korean War, though most of the crashes were pilot error because after all they are usually flying 18" apart. In March 1973, four Blue Angels collided killing three with the other ejecting and surviving from his F-4. Recently, two of the Blue Angels collided with minor damage in the F/A-18 with some wing damage and that was about it (thankfully).

Here is a list of aircraft the Blue Angels have operated since 1946: