The sergeant (enlisted personnel) whose name is on the plane, is not the pilot, he or she, is the enlisted person who maintains the plane. The pilot’s name is also on the plane. Pilots of planes are officers. With helicopters, you have both officer and warrant officer pilots. Warrant officers are former enlisted who have a great deal of skill and experience.

All the maneuvers are actually real combat tactics, whether it’s the thunder birds or blue angels. All those aircraft can be on the way to a combat area within 24 hours. That’s because the paint has to dry. Got to love the f-16.

Thunder Birds are out of Las Vegas, Nevada

The Thunderbirds are actually stationed at Nellis Air Force Base, North Las Vegas, NV. . .

I've seen the Blue Angels the last two years, going to see the Thunderbirds at an airshow next month. They both do shows almost every weekend somewhere from April to October. The pilots are only part of the teams for about three years, then they rotate back to their normal duty. Always a great show!!

The USAF Thundrrbirds fly the F-16 manufactured by General Dynanics. The US Navy Blue Angels fly the F/A 18 Hornet manufactured by Boeing/ McDonnell Douglas

The AF Academy is in Colorado Springs, CO. The Thunderbirds are based out of Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, NV.

The Sgts names you saw on that side of the canopy are the flight crew for that plane. The pilots are all officers and their names are put on the other side of the canopy.

I like going to their shows (Blue Angels and Thunderbirds and any other air show). We used to drive a ways to go to some, too. I haven't been to any in a while, though. When I was in college and when I lived there for five years after, there was a USAF base about 30-40 minutes away and we'd go to most every show that was on the base.

Love the Thunderbirds! And their F-16s🤘🇺🇸🏴‍☠️It's cool seeing a reaction to them instead of much more known Blue Angeles with their F-18s🔥💪

As other posters have commented, the Thunderbirds are F-16 Falcons, and are stationed out of Nellis Air Force Base, in Las Vegas Nevada. I grew up and lived on that base for 16 years, from 1971-1986, until my Dad retired in 1986. We used to watch them practice most of the year, when they were not on tour doing airshows. Not to mention the yearly airshow on base every year. And I've seen the Navy Blue Angels many times, along with the Canadian Snowbirds and the RAF Red Arrows a few times. Fun side for me, my Pa was a mechanic on the #4 Thunderbird from '71-'73 when the Team used the F-4 Phantoms. in '73-'74ish, the Air Force started using the T-38 Talon as their Thunderbirds.

The blue angels and thunderbirds did air shows together all over USA during the pandemic.

I saw them preforming or training right out of the Joint Airbase in Charleston SC, live very close to it, was awesome, especially when one almost buzzed the parking lot I was in. Must have been an Airshow or something going on at some point because days later I saw a B-29 Superfortress landing lmao. I've also caught the Blue Angels training or preforming a few times in the past, always a fun sight to see such ace pilots doing their thing.

The Navy fly F 18s and the Air Force fly F 16s, The enlisted ranks (Sargent) are the plane captains, in charge of the maintenance etc of the plane.

Hey Daz, As an ‘aviation guy’, the correct term is aerobatics, not acrobatics. It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard every time you say it😵‍💫. Also the cover is a canopy.

You first saw a 6-ship formation, but a lot of their maneuvers are a 4-ship. The other two are solo demo pilots so when a 4-ship comes by then goes out to reconfigure for the next pass, the solo pilots will do some maneuvers by the crowd line to keep everyone engaged. There’s also a 2-seater and a pilot usually comes to the site early and takes local TV or others for rides to provide info for advertising the show.

There is a video of the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels flying together

50 years ago this summer, when i was 14, I spent a summer with my sister and her husband when he was stationed at Ft Bliss, Texas, at El Paso. For the 4th of July, the Golden Knights (Army Parachute Team) and the Blue Angels and I think the Thunderbirds did a joint show at Ft Bliss. It was amazing. I have very clear, very specific memories. The 1970s was probably prime time for air shows around the country, right up through the early 80s. I know when our son was small we took him to several air shows at our local airport, and almost always one of the groups would appear. Going down to the airport that morning of, or night before, whenever the fly-in was, was so amazing. Our town sits in a river valley in the Allegheny mountains and some of those airplanes they brought in just didn't look like they could fit on the airfield. I remember B52 Bombers and 747s and all sorts of huge planes flying in. Normal air traffic in that airport is little puddle-jumper commuter planes and small private craft.

I have seem the Blue Angles and the Thunderbird flying at the same air show,when I was a little girl,

Colorado has 2 bases "Peterson AFB " and the air force acadamy near norad.

THE pilots are officers... The Staff Sergeant (non commissioned officer) on the right side of the plane is the crew chief of that plane... The pilots name and call sign are on the left side...

The Air Force Academy (AF version of West Point) is in Colorado, but TBirds are from Vegas.

Probably mentioned before. the thunder birds are based just outside of Las Vegas. When both the NHRA, and NASCAR run at Las Vegas motor speed way,they might fly over unexpectedly.

T birds out of nellis afb in Vegas. Obviously they travel to alot of places and there's footage of them at different bases

As someone else said, from about 1:47 until 2:02, that is a remote control model plane. They don't do those sorts of things with the real deal. That instantaneous climb would be too much stress on the airframe, as well as the pilot. Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 Gs. With more modern tech/computers that planes such as the F-22 and F-35 have, you may be able to do something similar to the hovering shown, but it wouldn't physically behave the same due to the massive weight and thrust difference, and it wouldn't be sustainable for nearly as long, not to mention being far too risky. IRL they can do a sort of pseudo hover (8:44), however the AoA (Angle of Attack) isn't that extreme, and they're still moving quite fast.

Great reaction guys, I live in kansas City mo and we had both the blue angels and the thunderbird at the same air show 2 years in a row summer of 2021, and 2022 don't know why, but who's complaining ha ha. They never perform the same air show, too many cities to go around. Well have a wonderful and safe week.

Between the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels, 41 pilots and crew have died. Given how hard it is to qualify for those jobs....it's quite a dangerous profession by some margin.

1:59 I don’t know who made this video but that’s a RC plane

I saw The Blue Angels years ago flying over the ocean at the beach in Cape May NJ. It was amazing to watch as a kid.

They are active pilots in the Air Force. They normally do a year with the Thunderbirds, then go back to their squadrons. Furthermore, they are always cycling out pilots. They even have women pilots that preform.

I'm not sure if it's still holds up but, when I was stationed at Nellis AFB where the Thunderbird's are based I asked one of their crew chiefs if the Blue Angels ever performed with the Thunderbirds. His response, there's an agreement that they'll never perform on the same coast of America at the same time. He didn't really explain why. This was around 2000-2002

Since 1986, the Blue Angels have flown the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet and the Thunderbirds fly the F-16 Fighting Falcon

Imagine if the blue angels used the F-18 HARV and Thunderbirds with the F-16 VISTA/ MATV

From the 12 minute mark and on they where flying above Old San Juan in Puerto Rico

The blue angels and the thunderbirds flew together over new york

Thunderbirds are based out of Nellins AFB in Las Vegas

love the videos you guys are doing, keep it up.

The Thunderbirds are flying the F-16 Fighting Falcon. The Blue Angels fly the FA-18 Hornet.

There are videos of The Blue Angels and The Thunderbirds flying together on KZfaq

They are based out of Nellis air force base in Las Vegas nevada

The Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds do perform together on occasion. There are videos on KZfaq that you can watch.

The Blue angels are Navy the Thunderbirds are Air force.

Great Video❗️❤️‍🔥🤝🏾

The Air Force Academy is in Colorado, it is a college, like West Point for the Army and Annapolis for the Navy. However the Thunderbirds still may be based there.

Great planes and better pilots 😎😎😎

Got to see them 50 ft above my head ;-)

They have a video on KZfaq where the Blue Angels and Thunderbird ds fly over NY,NJ Pennsylvania during the pandemic. Thunderbird fly F16 ,Blue Angels fly The Super Hornets

Based out of Nellis AFB in Las Vegas

They did during covid flyover's

They have

Don't sneeze!

I do remember President Trump in the summer of the first shut down, he had both the thunderbirds and Blue Angels do fly overs for major cities, to try to keep spirits up... I just dont know where these two groups fly when America really does no show of military parades, and the stadiums for sports only want true military planes.. I think a cool cross of planes over a stadium would be just as cool! what i always love is the one plane that flies through the other ones, always comes out of no where.. they will disappear prior in the sky, then come full throttle to make the split.. what would be a very nice way to show the Ally between America and Britain, have the Red Arrows do fly overs here on certain times, and then the Birds and Angels fly over there.. and if needed, use Air craft carriers to transport in times of peace (if that can actually be a term?) Daz, I agree, never get tired, you guys need to put back plane videos (military or commercial) or vehicles (military or commercial) just new stuff like this or exciting like this..

AFTHER ON VIENT DIRE STE CEST PAS PILOTAIT EXCUSE ME 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 CEST JUST TOP DROLE

Thunderbirds are F-16C Fighting Falcon, it's another Aircraft from the 1970s and it's focused around highly maneuverable air to air combat. Blue Angels have been F/A-18E Super Hornets for a few years now, an upgraded version of the F/A-18 Hornet, another aircraft from the 1970s, its called a multirole aircraft, jack of all master of none. In air to air combat the F-16C should beat the F/A-18E The F-22 Raptor, built in the late 80s early 90s, was meant to replace the F-16C but it cost so much and there was no real need to replace the F-16C due to no one really having an aircraft that could best it up until maybe 3 years ago.... Now both the F-16 and F-18 are being replaced with the F-35A/F-35C, a subpar aircraft that the US spent way too much money on to ditch, got to love the corruption that comes from that military contract money.

Sounds kinda stupid to say, but as long as your speeds are equal, even bumping into each other mid air isn't a huge concern. Relative speed to each other is 0. It would be like bumping into a car on the highway without having to deal with the friction of your tires on the ground as a repercussion. Not saying you should do it, just saying it's not as dangerous as it appears.

and to think these planes are our garbage....

I honestly think part of the reason that the Thunderbirds are less known than the Blue Angels, is because their planes are fucking ugly lol Give them a proper paint job. The BS red white and blue sucks. They look like they should be taxiing me to my British Airway flight.