By: Dan Roe
For U.S. Navy’s elite flight demonstration squad, it all began in the months after World War II.
The U.S. Navy Blue Angels perform with F/A-18 Hornet A/B planes in San Francisco, October 2002.
The U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron—better known as the Blue Angels—launched from its home base in Jacksonville, Florida, in June 1946. Ever since, it has swooped into the American consciousness by performing tight-formation acrobatic routines at air shows around the country.
To get beyond the basics of “the Blues,” we combed through the history books and spoke with former demonstration pilot Jim Horsley to uncover six lesser-known facts about America’s signature naval aerobatic team.
Only four naval admirals have reached the five-star rank of fleet admiral, and Chester Nimitz was one. During World War II, Nimitz commanded the United States Pacific Fleet in the wake of Pearl Harbor, led the U.S. Navy through the decisive Battle of Midway and represented the United States in Japan’s surrender aboard the USS Missouri in September 1945. It’s safe to say the admiral had an affinity for seafaring fighter planes, so much so that he ordered the creation of a flight demonstration team to maintain public interest in naval aviation within a year of the war’s conclusion.
U.S. Navy Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, seen in Guam on June 21, 1945, created the Navy Flight Exhibition Team in April 1946.
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The Navy launched its flight demonstration team as the Navy Flight Exhibition Team, a name deemed subpar by some of the original Blue Angel pilots. Thumbing through The New Yorker ahead of a trip to New York City, pilot Wick Wickendoll exclaimed to Flight Leader Roy “Butch” Voris, “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” Wickendoll had encountered an ad for the Blue Angel supper club, which nearly took up a city block of Manhattan and advertised “Continuous Entertainment from 10 P.M.”
There was just one snag: The brass had never signed off on the new name. No matter, they would simply share it quietly with newspapers, a maneuver Voris recounted in multiple interviews after retiring from the Navy. “Well the headlines the next day [said] ‘Navy’s Blue Angels Captured Air Show,’ and it stuck right from there on out,” Voris said in one interview. Approached by his chief of staff about the team’s new name from the headlines, Voris said the press made it up, and the Navy allowed the “Blue Angels” to stick.
Cavin Ponder and Martha Davis perform at the Blue Angel, a former supper club on E. 55th Street in Manhattan, New York, as owner Herbert Jacoby leans in, circa April 1957.
Blue Angel pilots fly U.S. Navy planes using the same maneuvers that all naval aviators are taught in training. Since 1946, the squadron has flown 11 aircraft, starting with the F6F Hellcat and F8F Bearcat. Today, they fly F/A-18 Super Hornet E/F planes that are modified in a few key ways.
Gatling gun-equipped nose cannons are removed, as there’s no need to deliver 412 20mm rounds in less than 10 seconds during an air show. Instead, a smoke-oil tank is installed to create the group’s signature smoke trails. The squadron also alters its F/A-18s with a spring that adds pressure to the control stick to enable ultra-precise maneuvering.
A pilot flies a restored F8F Bearcat in 2016. The Bearcat was one of the first aircraft the Blue Angels used for its flight demonstrations back in 1946.
Overcast skies make life harder for the Blue Angels, but not for the reason you might think. The Blues choose from three predetermined routines based on cloud cover. Clear skies allow for an unrestricted “high show,” moderate cloud cover mandates a “low show” without overhead loops, and dense cloud cover requires a “flat show.”
“The flat show is the hardest show,” Jim Horsley says. “There are no real rolling maneuvers, just a series of flat passes in different formations. Because you don’t gain altitude, you’re really jerking the airplane around.”
The Blue Angels sometimes change their routine midshow to adjust for changing visibility, with the flight leader making the call on the radio.
The Blue Angels fly by the Golden Gate Bridge as part of an annual air show in San Francisco, October 2000. The squadron’s precisely choreographed demonstrations are dictated by cloud cover.
Roughly 300 pilots have flown Blue Angels demonstrations throughout the organization’s history. Because the squadron consists of just six demonstration pilots per year, joining is no easy feat.
Like a fraternity or sorority, Blue Angels applicants who meet the team’s basic requirements “rush” the squadron by traveling with the Blue Angels (on their own dime) and attending air shows with the team. “The idea is you join them on the road, sit in on briefs, go to social functions, get to know the guys and see how they operate, and it gives them a chance to know us, too,” Horsley says.
While Top Gun portrayed elite Navy fighter pilots as testosterone-fueled and egotistical, the reality among Blue Angels pilots is anything but, Horsley explains. Indulging in ego and individuality is contrary to the culture required to safely fly within 36 inches of each other at more than 400 miles-per-hour 150 feet above the ground, so the squadron simply doesn’t tolerate it. New demonstration pilots and support officers must earn unanimous votes to be admitted.
The Blue Angels represent an exclusive group within the U.S. Navy. On March 11, 2023, lieutenant Amanda Lee (third from left) became the first woman to perform with the famed aerobatic squad.
As much as the Blue Angels take their high-flying acrobatics seriously, the pilots also like to blow off steam when they can. The “dead ant” tradition was a favorite in Horsley’s day. “At any place—except on the flight line or in front of the president—you could call ‘dead ant,’ and all the pilots hit the floor with their legs and arms in the air,” Horsley says. “The last one got loaded and had to buy everybody a round of drinks.”
While serving as vice president during the Reagan administration, George H.W. Bush got to relive the camaraderie of naval aviation when a Blue Angel called dead ant while Bush was visiting Joint Base Andrews. “He loved it and it made him feel like one of the guys,” Horsley says, though no one held Bush to a round of drinks when the vice president was last to the ground. “The Secret Service weren’t too excited about that,” Horsley recalls.
U.S. Navy pilot George H.W. Bush sits in the cockpit of an Avenger fighter aircraft, circa 1943-45. Decades later, Vice President Bush visited the Blue Angels team at Joint Base Andrews.
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Dan Roe is a freelance writer with a decade of experience covering a variety of topics including the outdoors, running, cycling, health, fitness and more. He has written for titles including Runner’s World, Bicycling, Popular Mechanics, Outside, SELF, VICE and more.
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