The Navy’s aerial demonstration team will be getting new rides…..
But they won’t be the single engine problem plagues F-15’s…..
They have elected to stick with what they know and just get upgrades of the aircraft they have been flying since 1986!…The dual engine F-18…..
The U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels flight demonstration team is getting new planes—but they won’t be F-35s. The team is transitioning to the F/A-18 Super Hornet and skipping the F-35 “Panther.” The new plane simply isn’t ready and the cost of purchasing F-35s for the team would easily exceed a billion dollars.
The U.S. Navy’s elite Blue Angels have flown many different airplanes since their creation in 1946, but none more than the F/A-18 Hornet. The Blues have flown Hornets since 1986, first the F/A-18A then the newer F/A-18C planes still flying today.
But newer is a relative term, and the Navy is phasing out F/A-18Cs as they become increasingly difficult and expensive to maintain. In the future, U.S. Navy carriers will go to sea with two squadrons of F/A-18E (one seater) and F/A-18F (two seater) Super Hornet jets and two squadrons of F-35s.
On Monday, August 14th Naval Air Systems Command issued a $17 million contract to Boeing to convert 11 existing Navy Super Hornets—both single and double seaters—to demonstration aircraft configuration, a process expected to be complete by 2021. According to USNI News Blue Angel aircraft are fitted with civilian instrument landing systems, a seven pound spring on the stick to improve close formation flying, oil-based smoke generators, and the team’s distinctive blue and yellow paint job….
image….Pinterst