The Heart-Pounding History of the Blue Angels
Not many of the entertainment forms that arrived in the aftermath of World War II have managed to retain a hold on subsequent generations of audiences. But the Blue Angels, the naval flight demonstration team known for impressive aerial maneuvers, have been a hit since they first zoomed into existence in 1946.
These signature blue-and-gold jets continue to provide the sort of heart-pounding spectacle that makes even the most jaded teenager look up from their screen. Here’s a look at how this iconic group of aerial wizards came to be, and some of its notable touchstones over the years.
Promoting Naval Aviation
After World War II, naval aviation was no longer commanding headlines for its wartime missions, and the program was facing the possibility of major budget cuts. This gave Navy Commander LeRoy “Roy” Simpler an idea: He reasoned that exhibitions of flying prowess could provide a morale boost and promotional benefits for the division. The idea found support in the Navy ranks, and Lieutenant Commander Roy “Butch” Voris was chosen to lead the initial five-man team of aviators.
For aircraft, Voris went with the Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat, which had to be reconfigured with the removal of armament and the addition of tail weight to provide proper counterbalance. The pilots then began practicing their flight maneuvers over a stretch of swampland near Jacksonville, Florida. The remote area was chosen, according to Voris, because “if anything happened, just the alligators would know.”
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The Blue Angels Get Their Name
Voris’ flying team made its public debut at the Southeastern Air Show and Exposition at Jacksonville’s Craig Field on June 15, 1946, the late afternoon cloud cover clearing just in time for the pilots to showcase the aviators’ high-altitude moves. After repeating the routine the following day, the team received the trophy for the exhibition’s most outstanding performance.
With demand for their show rapidly escalating, the team set about enhancing the experience. To simulate an aerial combat sequence, they added a North American Aviation SNJ-5 Texan, painted to resemble Japan’s Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter plane. Later that summer, the team switched planes to the F8F Bearcat.
However, the program was still known by the specific but unflashy moniker of Navy Flight Exhibition Team, until one of the pilots spotted the name of a popular nightclub in The New Yorker magazine. Voris liked the name, too, and in July, his unit was rechristened the Blue Angels.
Iconic Aerial Maneuvers
More upgrades came to the show in 1949 with the transition to the F9F-2 Panther, a jet that surpassed the team’s old propeller planes by nearly 200 mph. That year, the Blue Angels expanded their performance to six aircraft, and another feature was introduced when fuel tanks on the jets’ wingtips were filled with colored water that was released to produce long trails of condensation.
The flight demonstration team went on hiatus the following year, as aerial combat units required a return to service for the Korean War. The Blue Angels were assigned to squadron VF-191, nicknamed “Satan's Kittens,” which flew missions off the USS Princeton stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
After returning to the performance circuit in 1952, the Blue Angels again upgraded their aircraft to the F9F-8 Cougar and then the F11F-1 Tiger, the latter pushing supersonic speeds at more than 700 mph. In 1956, the team left United States territory for the first time with its performance at the International Aircraft Show in Toronto, Canada.
Meanwhile, the Blue Angels began developing many of the signature performance maneuvers that unfailingly thrilled observing crowds. The “Diamond Formation,” in which four planes zipped across the sky in close proximity to one another, first appeared in 1947. The “Back-to-Back Pass,” in which two planes flew toward each other, one inverted, surfaced in 1958, and the following decade brought the introduction of the “Dirty Loop,” in which pilots steer their aircraft into a loop with the landing gear and flaps left down.
A Shift in Strategy
After notching their 1,000th career show on the Fourth of July in 1963, the Blue Angels again showcased their international appeal by performing for an estimated 1.5 million people during a 1964 air show in Mexico City. They delivered exhibitions in the Caribbean and Europe in 1965, before returning to Europe two years later.
In 1969, the team transitioned to the McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II, a monster of a jet that surpassed speeds of 1,400 mph. However, the Phantom II may have been too powerful for public demonstration purposes. During practice for a 1969 show in British Columbia, a plane surpassing the sound barrier blew out the windows of an eight-block stretch of city streets. In 1973, a series of deadly mid-air collisions led to an early cancellation of the show season.
The Blue Angels resumed business in 1974 with the smaller and lighter A-4F Skyhawk II. The following year, they introduced another aircraft designed to showcase tactical control instead of blinding speed: the Lockheed KC-130F Hercules, affectionately known as “Fat Albert,” which doubled as the team’s transport aircraft for equipment and personnel.
The Blue Angels Make History
Coming on the heels of the fighter-plane blockbuster Top Gun, the Blue Angels enjoyed another boost of attention in the summer of 1986, when the music video for the Van Halen song “Dreams” included footage of the crack Navy pilots in action. That November, at the end of the Blue Angels’ 40th anniversary year, the team unveiled its newest jet, the F/A-18 Hornet.
In 1992, as part of a tour that took them across eight European countries in a month, the Blue Angels became the first U.S. military flight demonstration team to perform in Russia. More history was made in 1998, when Flight Leader Commander Patrick Driscoll became the first Blue Angels pilot to land their jet on an active aircraft carrier.
For all their successes, though, the Blue Angels weren’t immune to bureaucracy, and saw their first lengthy shutdown since the Korean War when federal budget cuts in 2013 halted the team’s performance schedule. Seven years later, the arrival of COVID-19 again grounded the program as public exhibitions were universally canceled.
Yet the Blue Angels managed to endure the setbacks and resume their 300-day exhibition seasons, which ensure plenty of viewing opportunities for fans across the country and beyond. The team returned to the skies in 2021 with a new generation of jets, the sleek F/A-18 Super Hornet. And in 2023, the Blue Angels finally featured their first female demonstration pilot, Lieutenant Amanda Lee, a sign that the historic program was continuing to find ways to move forward through the 21st century.
