military@cbnews.ATT.COM (William B. Thacker) (04/12/90)
From: att!jsugate!nak >From: fiddler@concertina.Eng.Sun.COM (Steve Hix) [stuff deleted] >The Blue Angels transitioned from F-11F-1 Super Tigers to A-4 Skyhawks to >F/A-18 Hornets over a couple of decades. You forgot the F-4's. In 1973 the Blue Angels were flying F-4 Phantom II's. Source: a Naval Recruiting magazine/flyer, complete with numerous color glossies. My dad was a naval reservist at the time, and NROTC was apossible way to get me through college. When I read the vision requirements for naval air, I got depressed. I think that easily as far back as 1967 they were using F-4's. My dad was stationed at Glenview Naval Air Station (near Chicago), and we used to see Phantoms in formation overhead many an afternoon. We were always told that they were the Blue Angels. In particular, the story I always heard... [Would anybody from McDonnel-Douglas care to shoot this one dead or confirm it] ...was that the conventional wisdom from McD-D is that the Phantom was not supposed to be able to do one of the formation manuevers the B.A. performed. This is where the entire wedge rolls on a common axis through the center of the point plane. The outer planes were not supposed to be able to generate sufficient areo forces to do the manuever. But the Blue Angels, like bumblebees, went and did it anyway. They switched from the "too mean and hostile looking" Phantom to the A4 Skyhawk. Neil Kirby ...att!jsugate!nak
geoffm@EBay.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller) (04/14/90)
From: geoffm@EBay.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller) In article <15494@cbnews.ATT.COM> you write: [...] > They switched from the "too mean and hostile looking" Phantom to the A4 > Skyhawk. Is this really the reason they switched aircraft? It sounds a little strange, considering the fact that flight demonstration teams are *supposed* to use combat aircraft... Geoff Miller