The Blue Angels Are Taking Their Hornet Out for One Closing Flight

• The Blue Angels are taking their closing F/A-18 Hornet fighter for a closing flight today.
• The Blues flew the F/A-18 for 34 years, the longest scoot of any of their airframes.
• The flight team is transitioning to Gigantic Hornet fighters, as neatly as a brand original “Plump Albert” transport.

The Blue Angels are taking their closing F/A-18 Hornet fighter for one closing flight today. The flight demonstration team has flown the Hornets for extra than three a long time, nonetheless the time has advance to skedaddle on to more moderen airplanes. After today’s flight, the Blues will fully transition to the more moderen, greater Gigantic Hornet fighter.

The U.S. Navy established the Blue Angels in 1946, because the team locations it, to “elevate the general public’s curiosity in naval aviation and enhance Navy morale.” Every one year since, the Blues have flown the air stamp circuit both in the U.S. and in a foreign nation, thrilling millions with their mettlesome flying maneuvers.

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The Blues have flown 10 airframes over the closing 74 years, initiating with the wartime F6F Hellcat fighter. The team is now on the verge of transitioning from the F/A-18C/D Hornet to the F/A-18E/F Gigantic Hornet. The transition will assign the third generation of Hornet fighters to lend a hand with the blues over 34 years.

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The team became once first geared up with the F/A-18A and F/A-18B Hornet in 1986. The bulk of the Blue Angels feeble the -A mannequin, whereas they most ceaselessly feeble the two-seat -B mannequin to buy VIPs up for a demonstration flight. In 2010, the team transitioned to more moderen -C and -D items. Now, the Blues are transferring to -E and -F items, with the -F providing a second seat for straggle-alongs.

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The Navy retired the -C/D mannequin from full of life accountability naval aviation, because the older planes are increasingly complex to lend a hand. The Blue Angels in the in the intervening time are taking older Gigantic Hornets procured in the early 2000s and changing them to flight demonstration accountability.

The Blues are changing 11 Gigantic Hornets, including 9 single-seat -E items and a pair of two-seat -F items, making $90 million adjustments to the plane’s flight regulate gadget and including smoke generators. Despite the adjustments, the planes will probably be made strive against-ready in 72 hours.

The Blue Angels need to now not right picking up original fighter jets. The Blues have also bought a brand original “Plump Albert”, the nickname of the cargo transport plane that accompanies the team from location to location, carrying spare parts, maintainers, and diversified personnel.

The Blues bought the plane, an ex-Royal Air Drive C-130J Gigantic Hercules, from the U.Okay. and painted it of their blue and gold livery. Plump Albert is the unsung critical person of the team’s air stamp act, kicking it off with a low-altitude overflight and a few adore maneuvers of its enjoy.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher Gordon/U.S. Navy

The closing Hornet flight will happen this afternoon from 4 p.m. to 4: 30 p.m. CST, over and in the vicinity of Naval Air Web dispute online Pensacola, the Blue Angels’ residence awful.

The team kicks off its 2021 flight stamp season April 10 on the Naval Air Web dispute online Jacksonville Whisper at Pensacola, Florida. To see if the Blues are coming to your city, locate their schedule here.

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