The Blue Angels
The U.S. Navy's Flight Demonstration Squadron

The Blue Angels’ mission is to enhance Navy and Marine Corps recruiting efforts and to represent the naval service to the United States, its elected leadership and foreign nations.  The Blue Angels serve as positive role models and goodwill ambassadors for the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps.

A Blue Angels flight demonstration exhibits choreographed refinements of skills possessed by all naval aviators.  The Blue Angels’ C-130, affectionately known as Fat Albert, begins each demonstration by exhibiting its maximum performance capabilities during a ten-minute performance.  Shortly thereafter, you will see the graceful aerobatic maneuvers of the four-jet Diamond Formation, in concert with the fast-paced, high-performance maneuvers of its two Solo pilots.  Finally, the team illustrates the pinnacle of precision flying, performing maneuvers locked as a unit in the renowned, six-jet Delta Formation.

The team is stationed at Forrest Sherman Field, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, during the show season.  However, the squadron spends January through March training pilots and new team members at Naval Air Facility El Centro, California.

The Blue Angels are scheduled to fly 68 air shows at 35 air show sites in the United States during the 2010 season, as the team celebrates our 23rd year of flying the F/A-18 Hornet.

Last season, more than 8 million spectators watched the Blue Angels perform.  Since its inception in 1946, the Blue Angels have performed for more than 463 million fans.

 For more on the Blue Angels, go to:  http://www.blueangels.navy.mil/