Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ncar!unmvax!uokmax!occrsh!fang!att!cbnewsc!cbnews!cbnews!military From: shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: blue angels Message-ID: <1991Jun28.022359.26901@cbnews.cb.att.com> Date: 28 Jun 91 02:23:59 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.cb.att.com (william.a.thacker) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 38 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Mary Shafer Robert E Mitchell (stump@unix.cis.pitt.edu) writes: Hi there. Sorry to bother you all with such mundane requests, but my friend and I got into a "discussion" over what the Blue Angels flew before the F-18. He insists that they flew F-4 Phantoms. I beleive they flew A-4 Skyhawks. I'm almost sure of it and there is 20 bucks in it for me if I'm right. I'm not sure if the Blue Angels ever flew F-4's because to me it doesn't appear to be a good choice as an acrobatic/stunt/showplane. I remember it being fondly referred to as the flying brick. They flew F9Fs until they switched (mid-60s) to F-4s and in the mid-70s went to A-4s. In the early 80s they went to F-18s. The Thunderbirds also flew the F-4E and the F-4 I flew in was one of them. The T-birds went to T-38s and then F-16s at about the same time as the Navy went to A-4s and F-18s. You've got a lot of nerve badmouthing the F-4. Just because it's big, ugly, and takes two counties (those little counties on the East Coast, not real counties like Kern) to turn in, you've got no call to criticize it. "Flying brick" indeed. That's "double ugly" you're insulting. To be a little more factual here, the services have always maintained that the display teams only fly regular operational fighters in routine-ish maneuvers, so they had to fly the F-4 at that time. Although the F-4 can't fly the tight patterns that the A-4 and F-16 do, I found it to be a more awesome aircraft. -- Mary Shafer shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA Of course I don't speak for NASA "Turn to kill, not to engage." CDR Willie Driscoll