Blue Angels in San Francisco AirShow

The City and County of San Francisco is the fourteenth-largest in the United States. It is located on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula and is the focal point of the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco is the second most densely populated major American city, after New York. The city is famous for its history in progressive social movements.

San Francisco has a unique mix of physical characteristics, including its months-long episodes of fog, its steep rolling hills, its eclectic mix of architecture (including Victorian style houses and modern highrises), and its being bordered on three sides by the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay. Famous hallmarks and landmarks include the San Francisco cable cars, the Transamerica Pyramid, the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island. Alcatraz Island is located in the middle of San Francisco Bay in California. It was formerly used as a military stockade and later as a maximum security prison. Today, the island is a historic site supervised by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is open to tours. Visitors can reach the island by ferry ride from Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.

The United States Navy's Blue Angels, is the world's first officially-sanctioned military aerial demonstration team. The team currently operates 6 aircraft per show. Here are some stunning pictures of the airshow.

The team is split into "the Diamond" (Blue Angels 1 through 4) and the Opposing Solos (Blue Angels 5 and 6). Most of their display alternates between maneuvers performed by the diamond, and those performed by the solos. The diamond performs maneuvers in tight formation, usually at lower speeds, such as formation loops and barrel rolls or transitions from one formation to another. The opposing solos usually perform their maneuvers just under the speed of sound, and show off the capabilities of their individual F/A-18s through the execution of high-speed passes, slow passes, fast rolls, slow rolls, and very tight turns.

 

Some of the maneuvers include both solo F/A-18s performing at once, such as opposing passes (where the solos fly towards each other in what appears to be a collision course, and then narrowly miss one another) and mirror formations (the two F/A-18s being flown back-to-back or belly-to-belly; in such formations, one of the aircraft is often inverted). At the end of the routine, all 6 aircraft join in formation and execute the team's signature "fleur-de-lis" closing maneuver.

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