The Navy's Blue Angels (excerpt)

This is Robert Taylor bringing you the story of the Blue Angels, the United States Navy's flight demonstration team flying supersonic Grumman Tigers. The mission of the Blue Angels is to demonstrate precision formation flying to the men of the United States Navy. As a former naval aviator and flight instructor, I can appreciate the skill required to fly with this incredible accuracy at speeds well over 500 mph. The Blue Angels perform maneuvers taught to every naval aviation cadet for combat skill. The team, however, performs them at eye level and with wing tip clearances of only 3 to 5 ft. They're not a stunt team. Stunts require a certain luck factor. When pilots fly like the Blue Angels day in and day out, luck is something they can depend upon. The Blue Angels perform every standard maneuver in the book and some that are not, like this left echelon roll, which according to the book can't be done. The team does it to prove that with practice even the impossible becomes possible. This maneuver is used to start the show. The planes break to the four headings of the compass and then dive toward a point at a closing speed of over 1,200 mph. Passing within 10 ft of each other at nearly ground level. Okay, let's have a good try it up this time. Okay, judge your closing speed. My your speed 180. 200. 220. 340. 360. 400. This close at these high speeds, the airflow creates a proximity effect. It wants to repel the airplanes. The leader is so balanced by all three tigers that he could, though he never does, take his hands and feet off the controls and the formation would push him all the way around the road. >> Very nice. First, we'll do a couple of left echelon rolls. Shift. Down we go. And up we go. Okay, and over we go. The maneuver would be a nightmare to most pilots because a basic rule of formation flying is never turn into your echelon. The Blue Angels do the left echelon roll to show just how precise naval aviators can become through practice. This is the keynote of the Blue Angels performance. Between shows, they're in the air practicing every day. Ironing out the little problems. The team will practice a maneuver many times at altitude. When they feel they can do the routine 10 times out of 10 without getting hairy, they bring it down on the deck. The maximum performance pilots necessarily practice alone. The same proximity effect in the formation exists between the solo plane and the ground. They claim it's easy because they ride a cushion of air when really low. >> Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! >> Oh.