In the 2020s, severe
economic issues both at home and abroad caused some extreme measures to be
undertaken by US military organizations. Two such units where the US Air Force
and the US Navy Blue Angels Aerial Demonstration Squadrons. Since the F-22 had
turned out to far too expensive to purchase for the Thunderbirds, the USAF
turned to the hot new jet, the F-35, which was already under evaluation by the
US Navy as well. However, restrictions on the overall numbers was pushing both
groups to very small teams of perhaps 2 or 3 aircraft. In the midst of this
dilemma, a nameless accountant at the GAO (General Accounting Office) came up
with the perfect solution:
Amalgamate the
two teams!
It was said you
could hear the screaming from orbit once this idea got out. "It will never
work" screamed the brass. "We can't train the same way" said the
pilots. "What are THOSE wrenches for?" asked the airframe techs.
"How do we do the paperwork?" cried the paperpushers. "I'm not
wearing THAT #$@!*&% uniform!!!" said more than one Navy pilot. But, in
the end, the teams were forced together, and in the spirit of traditional
shotgun weddings, the new team, the "Thunder-Angels" (or
"Blue-Birds" if seen from below) was based in Arkansas!
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images below to see larger images
The planes were
painted in both schemes, so they could be "The ThunderBirds" when
passing right to left, and the "Blue Angels" when passing left to
right. Separate planes for knife edge passes were painted top/bottom specific as
well.
Alvis
3.1
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