# Military Flight Demonstration Teams Angels v T-Birds



## Kevin (Sep 6, 2014)

Another Ford vs Chevy lol. Well I'm going to throw a wrench in the argument before it even gets off the ground. Blue Impulse, the JADF (Japanese Air Defense Force) demo team flies maneuvers that the Blue Angels or T-Birds do not. Not necessarily because our guys couldn't do it but because they're considered too dangerous. Here's one such maneuver that's way cool called the corkscrew. The second one in the video has a better angle. . . .

Reactions: Way Cool 4


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## SENC (Sep 6, 2014)

Blue Angels. They alternated every year with the Birds for the Southport 4th of July celebration when I was a child. BA for me because it was their year when I was just the right age and I got my picture taken with one of the pilots in a cockpit. Fan for life.


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## Kevin (Sep 6, 2014)

The Blue Angels are so engrained in my psyche no team could ever take their place. I can't begin to guess how many times I saw them. Being a navy brat, when I was really young I grew up thinking that pilots that couldn't make the Angels were sent to the Air Force T-birds to practice until they got good enough to become Angels. I bet I was 9 or 10 before I mentioned it to my dad who laughed and explained the teams didn't trade pilots. Kind of bummed me out.


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## woodtickgreg (Sep 6, 2014)

Angels where here last week, air show was today at Selfridge ang base. I grew up in San Diego, not far from Miramar afb.
, you know fighter town, top gun school. Any way It's angels for me too as I grew up watching them from the roof of my house.


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## Wes Murphy (Sep 6, 2014)

Since I'm a retired Air Force person, I have to stick with the T-Birds. But the Angles are very good too

Reactions: Like 1


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## Brink (Sep 7, 2014)

Hmmmm. 
My dad was big time AF, so grew up seeing the T-Birds at every chance.
Saw the Blue Angels many times, had a chance to meet the pilots in Scranton, PA. Moma Brink is still amused that they were not as tall as her. Fat Albert on max performance RATO is awesome!

But

Believe it or not, one of the best flight demo teams I saw was the Chilean Air Force who could go up against the T-Birds and Blues, and they were flying piston engine Extra 300's.


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## Kevin (Sep 7, 2014)

Brink said:


> But
> Believe it or not, one of the best flight demo teams I saw was the Chilean Air Force who could go up against the T-Birds and Blues, and they were flying piston engine Extra 300's.



I believe that. There's quite a few teams and many of them don't have the same maneuver restrictions that the BA & TBs do.


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## Blueglass (Sep 7, 2014)

That vid is pretty crazy! Angels grew up in Key West, I never saw another team. KW did Top Gun training as well. We would see them doing maneuvers from the school bus a lot of mornings. Was pretty cool. Oh and the other reason I HAVE to pic the Angels, I'm ex-Navy.


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## Mike1950 (Sep 7, 2014)

Used to be great airshows here. Then the guy that did the +90 degree turn in the B-52 crashed it into the base. Fairchild AFB. Since then the shows have never been the same.
As far as picking between the 2 -watched the AF here and the Navy at the Academy. Hard to chose but I think they did just a little more at the naval academy. Probably trying to lure in more pilots.


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## ButchC (Sep 7, 2014)

It's a close toss up. Grew up here in Colorado Springs and saw the T-birds perform many times at the USAFA graduation, but being prior Navy, meeting pilots on-board the carrier that were previous Blue Angels pilots, and having seen the Angels numerous times in Pensacola and San Diego, I have to say Blue Angels.

I was stationed in Japan, but never knew about their flight performance team.

Butch


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## Kevin (Sep 7, 2014)

_"Invisible guidance is granted to anyone going aloft. And also here on earth"_








You just gotta love the Russians and their pageantry . . . . check out that scene starting at 1:37 with their orthodox clergy, some of whom are ex soviet airmen, now in all their state-sanctioned Russian Orthodox Church regalia, standing in front of the painting depicting the fast and deadly Sukhoi 27 Flanker fighters zooming skyward in front of the state church buildings, which are administered by the now morbidly obese priests, holding their golden Jesus crosses as if to ward off the evils of the western culture that is ravaging the youth of their society (from their view). Man the imagery that is depicted by that one scene brings to mind so many things. It just jumped off the screen when I saw it I had to freeze it. I think a book could be written just based on this one visual freeze frame . . . .





Did I derail my own thread again?

Reactions: Funny 1


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