For their 75th anniversary, the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy aerobatic team, said farewell to the F/A-18 Hornet. They will transition to the new F/A-18 Super Hornet for the upcoming show season.
The event was the occasion for a combined flight of both the old and the new, showing that the iconic livery was kept. The flight took place in the sky of Florida, near the Naval Air Station Pensacola on November 3, 2020.
Today we conducted our final flight on the F/A-18 A/B/C/D “Legacy” Hornets marking the official transition of the Blue…
Publiée par U.S. Navy Blue Angels sur Mercredi 4 novembre 2020
“We deeply appreciate the expertise and operational knowledge Blue Angels past and present have brought to the team and we look forward to enhancing our operations as we fully transition to flying the Super Hornet,” commented Commander Brian Kesselring, U.S. Navy Blue Angels commanding officer and flight leader.
The Classic Hornet was operated by the Blue Angels for 34 years, after having succeeded the McDonnell Douglas A-4F Skyhawk II.
Earlier in 2020, the Blue Angels took delivery of their new “Fat Albert”, the logistics plane that follows them to their shows. A former C-130J of the Royal Air Force was acquired, and after being painted in its unique livery in the United Kingdom, it was ferried across the Atlantic Ocean. The brand new Fat Albert should begin the show season along with the Super Hornets in 2021.
