To maintain its profile after WWII, and to reinforce its recruitment drive, the US Navy gathered some of its elite pilots to form the Blue Angels, a flight-demonstration squadron traveling to air shows around the country. The squadron's practice sessions can be observed here at their home base twice a week (weather permitting) from spring through autumn.
These days, performing for about 15 million people a year, "the Blues" (never "the Angels"), their C130 Hercules support aircraft named Fat Albert and their all-Marine support crew visit about 35 show sites a year. Six jets execute precision maneuvers, including death-defying rolls and loops, and two F/A-18s undertake solo flights; the show culminates in all six planes flying in trademark delta formation.
Bleachers are available for the first 1000 spectators, so arrive early; BYO coffee and lawn chairs. There is also a big performance around Veteran's Day (mid-Nov).
The viewing area is behind the National Naval Aviation Museum parking lot.
The name "Blue Angels" caught on during the original team's trip to New York in 1946, when one of the pilots saw the name of the city's Blue Angel nightclub in the New Yorker.
Each of the Blues does a two-year tour of duty. In addition to the six pilots (which always include one marine) is a narrator, who'll then move up through the ranks, and an events coordinator.
