The USAF Air Demonstration Squadron ("Thunderbirds") is the air demonstration squadron of the United States Air Force (USAF). The Thunderbirds are assigned to the 57th Wing, and are based at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. Created in 1953, the USAF Thunderbirds are the third oldest formal flying aerobatic team (under the same name) in the world, after the United States Navy Blue Angels formed in 1946 and the prestigious French Air Force Patrouille de France formed in 1931.
The Thunderbirds Squadron tours the United States and much of the world, performing aerobatic formation and solo flying in specially marked aircraft. The squadron's name is taken from the legendary creature that appears in the mythologies of several indigenous North American cultures.
On 1 March 2013, the USAF announced that due to budget cuts, aerial demonstration team performances would cease indefinitely, effective 1 April 2013. On 6 December 2013 the Thunderbirds announced their 2014 schedule and the resumption of their appearances.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
Overview
The Thunderbirds Squadron is a named USAF squadron, meaning it does not carry a numerical designation. It is also one of the oldest squadrons in the Air Force, its origins dating to the organization of the 30th Aero Squadron, formed at Kelly Field, Texas on 13 June 1917.
Officers serve a two-year assignment with the squadron, while enlisted personnel serve three to four years. As the squadron performs no more than 88 air demonstrations each year, replacements must be trained for about half of the team each year, in order to provide a constant mix of experience. In addition to their air demonstration responsibilities, the Thunderbirds are part of the USAF combat force and if required, can be rapidly integrated into an operational fighter unit. Since 15 February 1974 the Thunderbirds have been a component of the 57th Wing at Nellis AFB. Since 1953, they have flown in front of more than 300 million people.
F-16 Fighting Falcon
The Thunderbirds perform aerial demonstrations in the F-16C Fighting Falcon, and they also fly two F-16D twin-seat trainers.
The F-16 has been the demonstration aircraft for the Thunderbirds since the 1983 season. In January 1982, 4 members of the squadron were killed in what became known as the "Diamond Crash" of T-38 Talon aircraft which the squadron had flown since 1974. Partially as a result of that accident, the squadron switched to the F-16A, and sat out the 1982 airshow season and spent that year retraining and transitioning over to the new aircraft to ready themselves for the 1983 season. The F-16, however, had been considered for transition prior to the accident. In rebuilding the Thunderbird Team, the Air Force recruited previous Thunderbird pilots, qualified each in the F-16A, and had them begin by flying "two-ship" maneuvers, then expanded the program one airplane at a time up to the full six airplanes. Beginning in June 1982, the F-16 Thunderbirds were led by Major Jim Latham.
The team continues to fly the F-16, having switched from the F-16A to the F-16C in 1992. Only a few minor modifications differentiate a Thunderbird from an operational F-16C. These include the replacement of the 20 mm cannon and ammunition drum with a smoke-generating system, including its plumbing and control switches, the removal of the jet fuel starter exhaust door, and the application of the Thunderbirds' glossy red, white, and blue polyurethane paint scheme. All of the modification work is performed at the maintenance depot at Hill AFB near Ogden, Utah. Other than those modifications, the aircraft are taken from the standard USAF inventory as production fighters, and can be returned to an operational squadron in short order without any major modification.
Support aircraft
- Boeing C-17 Globemaster III - Unknown - Present
Demonstration routine
From the end of the runway the 4-ship Thunderbird team get ready to begin their take-off roll with the words "Thunderbirds, let's run em up!" being retransmitted from the team leader's mic through the PA system for the crowd to hear.
Diamond: Historically, as Thunderbirds 1 through 4 lift off, the slot aircraft slips immediately into position behind 1 to create the signature Diamond formation. Thanks to the 2009 upgrade to the Block 52, the Diamond now has more than enough thrust to continue to climb straight up into their first maneuver, the Diamond Loop.
Solos: Thunderbird 5 takes to the air next performing a clean low altitude aileron roll followed by 6 who performs a split S climbing in a near vertical maneuver rolling over and diving back toward show center pulling up just above the runway and exiting in the opposite direction.
Much of the Thunderbirds' display alternates between maneuvers performed by the diamond, and those performed by the solos. They have a total of 8 different formations: The Diamond, Delta, Stinger, Arrowhead, Line-Abreast, Trail, Echelon and the Five Card. The arrowhead performs maneuvers in tight formation as close as 18 inches Fuselage to Canopy separation. They perform formation loops and rolls or transitions from one formation to another. All maneuvers done at speeds of 450-500+ mph.
The opposing solos usually perform their maneuvers just under the speed of sound (500-700 mph), and show off the capabilities of their individual F-16s by doing maneuvers such as fast passes, slow passes, fast rolls, slow rolls, and very tight turns. Some of their maneuvers include both solo F-16s at once, such as opposing passes (passing in close proximity to each other) and mirror formations (their two F-16s being flown back-to-back in the calypso pass or belly-to-belly. In mirror formations, one Thunderbird must be inverted, and it is always Thunderbird Number 5. In fact, the "5" on this aircraft is painted on upside down, and thus appears right-side-up for much of the routine). There is also an extra amount of humor regarding the inverted performance of Thunderbird Five: the pilots all wear tailored flight suits with their name and jet number embroidered on the left breast. The 5 is sewn inverted.
Nearing the end the Diamond pulls straight up into the vertical to perform the signature "Bomb Burst," where all 4 aircraft break off in separate directions while a solo goes straight up through the maneuver and performs aileron rolls until 3 miles above the ground. At the end of the routine, all six aircraft join in formation, forming the Delta.
One of the Thunderbirds' standing engagements is the annual commencement ceremony at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. The jets fly over Falcon Stadium at the precise moment the cadets throw their hats into the air at ceremony's end.
History
On 19 September 1985, the USAF Air Demonstration Squadron was consolidated by Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA) with the 30th Bombardment Squadron, a unit which was organized on 13 June 1917.
During its operational history, the 30th served in World War I as a training unit in France, its mission to train fighter pilots to go into combat on the Western Front. The squadron was almost torpedoed on its troop ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Stationed at Clark Field in the Philippines on 7 December 1941, it was almost wiped out in the 1941 Battle of the Philippines. Some members of the squadron fought as an infantry unit and were captured by the Japanese, being subjected to the Bataan Death March. The squadron was withdrawn to Australia, being reformed and later attacked Japan as a B-29 Superfortress squadron in 1945. It was awarded nine Presidential Unit Citations in World War II. During the Korean War, the 30th attacked North Korean targets with B-29 Superfortresses.
Present-day USAF Thunderbirds carry the lineage, history, and honors of the 30th on active duty.
USAF Thunderbirds history
F-84 Thunderjet/Thunderstreak era
After six months training in an unofficial status, the Thunderbirds were activated on 25 May 1953 as the 3600th Air Demonstration Team at Luke AFB, just west of Phoenix.
The team had flown 26 shows by that August. The first team leader was Major Richard C. Catledge (1953-1954), and the first plane used by the unit was the straight-wing F-84G Thunderjet. Because the Thunderjet was a single-seat fighter, a two-seat T-33 Shooting Star served as the narrator's aircraft and was used as the VIP/Press ride aircraft. The T-33 served with the Thunderbirds in this capacity in the 1950s and 1960s.
The next year the Thunderbirds performed their first overseas air shows, in a tour of South and Central America, and added a permanent solo routine to the demonstration. In the spring of 1955, under their second commander/leader (September 1954 - February 1957), Captain Jacksel M. Broughton, they moved to the swept-wing F-84F Thunderstreak aircraft, in which they performed 91 air shows, and received their first assigned support aircraft, a C-119 Flying Boxcar.
F-100 Super Sabre era
The Thunderbirds' aircraft were again changed in June 1956, to the F-100C Super Sabre, which gave the team supersonic capability. This switch was accompanied by a relocation of their headquarters to Nellis AFB, Nevada on 1 June because of maintenance and logistical difficulties of basing the F-100s at Luke, with their first show after the move being held on 23 June. It also signaled a shift in their performance routine--for example, the Cuban 8 opening routine was dropped, and emphasis was placed on low, screaming flyovers and demonstrations of takeoff performance. For a time, if the show's sponsor permitted it, the pilots would create a "sonic boom;" this ended when the FAA banned supersonic flight over the continental United States. The move to Nellis also resulted in the first assignment of buildings and hangar space to the team.
This practice remained in force through the 1973 season. In 1961, the team was compelled to discontinue the vertical bank maneuver due to an FAA regulation prohibiting aerobatics that pointed the nose of the aircraft toward the crowd. The year 1962 saw the introduction of dual solo routines, and the Thunderbirds went on their first European deployment in 1963, the year after the disbanding of the "Skyblazers." (See below.) The team switched to the F-105 Thunderchief for the 1964 season, but were forced to re-equip with the F-100D after only six airshows due to a catastrophic structural failure of the No. 2 aircraft during a pitch-up maneuver that resulted in the death of Capt Gene Devlin at Hamilton Air Force Base. The F-100D Super Sabre was retained through the 1968 season.
F-4 Phantom II era
By 1967, the Thunderbirds had flown 1,000 shows. In 1969, the squadron re-equipped with the front-line F-4E Phantom, which it flew until 1973, the only time the Thunderbirds would fly jets similar to those of the Blue Angels as it was the standard fighter for both services in the 1960s and 1970s.
T-38 Talon era
Due to the 1973 oil crisis, the team only flew six air shows and was grounded for some time. However, in 1974 they switched to the more economical T-38 Talon. Five T-38s used the same amount of fuel needed for one F-4 Phantom. The switch to the T-38 also saw an alteration of the flight routine to exhibit the aircraft's maneuverability in tight turns, and also ended the era of the black tail on the No. 4 slot plane, which would now be regularly cleaned and shined like the others.
In 1982, the Thunderbirds suffered a catastrophic loss during pre-season training on 18 January. While practicing the four-plane diamond loop, the formation impacted the ground at high speed, instantly killing all four pilots: Major Norman L. Lowry (commander/leader), Captain Willie Mays, Captain Joseph N. "Pete" Peterson, and Captain Mark Melancon. The cause of the crash was determined by the USAF to be the result of a mechanical problem with the #1 aircraft's control stick actuator. This resulted in insufficient back pressure by the formation leader on the T-38 control stick during the loop. Visually cueing off of the lead aircraft during formation maneuvering, the wing and slot pilots disregarded their positions relative to the ground.
F-16 Fighting Falcon era
The team's activities were suspended for six months pending investigation of the crashes and review of the program, then reinstituted using the General Dynamics F-16A Fighting Falcon in 1983. They upgraded to the F-16C (now produced by Lockheed Martin) in 1992. The F-16 has been the aerial demonstration aircraft for the Thunderbirds for 30 years.
In 1986, the Thunderbirds did a fly-by for the re-dedication of the Statue of Liberty in New York City. They also performed the first American military demonstration in a communist country when the team visited Beijing, China in 1987.
Their 3,000th air show was performed in 1990, and in 1991 the team went overseas to perform air shows in Switzerland, Poland and Hungary. The team traveled abroad again in 1996, visiting Romania, Bulgaria and Slovenia. Also in 1996, the team participated in the Atlanta Olympics' opening ceremonies.
The United States Postal Service honored the Air Force's 50th anniversary as a separate branch of the military in 1997 with a limited edition stamp featuring the Thunderbirds.
In June 2005, the Thunderbirds selected Major Nicole Malachowski for the No. 3 position, making her the first female to hold a pilot position in the team's 53-year history. In 2007, during Maj. Malachowski's final season as a Thunderbird, the team selected its second female pilot, Captain Samantha Weeks, who flew the No. 6 opposing solo position.
The 2007 European Goodwill Tour was the Thunderbirds's first visit to Europe after the September 11th attacks. During this tour, the Thunderbirds performed at their first-ever air show in Ireland. Despite inclement weather, more than 100,000 people attended the air show, garnering nationwide exposure by Irish media. Additional stops along the way included aerial demonstrations in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria's Graf Ignatievo Air Base, Italy, France and England, where the Thunderbirds participated in the Royal International Air Tattoo, the world's largest air show. Outside of aerial demonstrations, the team participated in eight official public relations events attended by heads of state and local civic leaders. The team also conducted community outreach by meeting with needy children throughout Europe.
On 10-11 November 2007, the City of Las Vegas and Nellis AFB saluted the U.S. Air Force, hosting the capstone event of the USAF's 60th anniversary celebration.
In 2008, the Thunderbirds remained in North America, performing in both the United States and Canada. When Quebec City celebrated its 400th anniversary, the Thunderbirds joined the Canadian Forces's Snowbirds, the British Royal Air Force's Red Arrows, and the United States Navy's Blue Angels in a ceremonial flight over Quebec City. Later in the year, the team returned to Canada for two shows in Abbotsford, British Columbia.
In 2009 the Thunderbirds hired their first-ever Air National Guard pilot, Lt. Col. Derek Routt as Thunderbird No. 7 (operations officer), and the first-ever Reserve pilot, Maj. Sean Gustafson, also joined the team as Thunderbird No. 4 (slot).
The 2009 Far East Tour took the team to multiple locations on western border of the Pacific Rim and included performances in Hawaii, Australia, Malaysia, Guam, Thailand, Japan, and South Korea. More than 1.2 million people saw the shows in person and more than 120 million were exposed to the shows through their national media. These are conservative estimates as one Korean prime-time television show alone reached 8 million. The top-rated show "Qualifications of Man" did a one-hour feature on the Thunderbirds and resulted from a coordinated media pitch to the network and the Republic of Korea Air Force. In addition to the air shows, the Thunderbirds personally met and spent time with more than five hundred special needs children and orphans.
The entire 2013 flying season was canceled after Congress failed to enact a balanced program of spending cuts and tax increases to deal with the United States fiscal cliff. Team members made recruiting appearances in the Las Vegas area that did not require travel. Enlisted personnel performed gate checks and base housing inspections. Performances resumed in 2014.
Historical demonstration aircraft
Accidents
The Thunderbirds have performed at over 4,000 airshows worldwide, accumulating millions of miles in hundreds of different airframes over the course of their more than fifty-four years of service. Flying high-performance fighter jets is inherently dangerous; when flying in extremely close formation, the danger is compounded. The team has suffered three fatal crashes during air shows, two of them in jets:
The first was the death of Major Joe Howard, flying Thunderbird No. 3 (F-4E s/n 66-0321) on 4 June 1972 at Dulles Airport, during Transpo 72. His Phantom experienced a structural failure of the horizontal stabilizer, and Major Howard ejected as the aircraft fell back to earth tail first from about 1,500 feet and descended under a good canopy, but he landed in the aircraft fireball and did not survive.
The second death occurred 9 May 1981 at Hill AFB, Utah, when Captain David "Nick" Hauck flying Thunderbird No. 6 (T-38A) crashed while performing the hi-lo Maneuver. Capt Hauck crashed while attempting to land his ailing T-38 after an engine malfunctioned and caught fire. With black smoke billowing from the exhaust and the aircraft losing altitude in a high nose-up attitude, the safety officer on the ground radioed Capt Hauck: "You're on fire, punch out!" To that, he responded: "Hang on... we have a bunch of people down there." The aircraft continued to stay airborne for about half a mile before hitting a large oak tree and a barn, then sliding across a field and flipping as it traversed an irrigation canal--ultimately erupting into a fireball just a few hundred feet from the runway's end. No one on the ground was injured, even though the accident occurred adjacent to a roadway packed with onlookers.
Air shows
- 24 September 1961: TSgt John Lesso of the Thunderbirds C-123 crew was killed when an Air Force C-123 carrying the Army Golden Knights, on which he was flight engineer, crashed during take-off at an airshow in Wilmington, North Carolina.
- 4 June 1972: Major Joe Howard, flying Thunderbird No. 3 (F-4 s/n 66-0321), was killed during the Transpo '72 airshow at Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia.
- 9 May 1981: Capt Nick Hauck was killed in the crash of Thunderbird No. 6 (Northrop T-38) during a low approach during an air show at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.
- 14 September 2003: Captain Chris Stricklin, flying Thunderbird No. 6 (F-16), crashed during an airshow at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. Immediately after takeoff, Stricklin attempted a "Split S" maneuver (which he had successfully performed over 200 times) based on an incorrect mean-sea-level elevation of the airfield, 1100 feet (335 m) higher than the home base at Nellis. Climbing to only 1670 feet (509 m) above ground level instead of 2500 feet (762 m), Stricklin had insufficient altitude to complete the maneuver, but guided the F-16C aircraft down the runway away from the spectators and ejected less than one second before impact. He survived with only minor injuries and no one on the ground was injured, but the $20 million aircraft was completely destroyed. Official procedure for demonstration "split S" maneuvers was changed, and the USAF now requires Thunderbird pilots and airshow ground controllers to both work in above-MSL (mean-sea-level) altitudes, as opposed to ground control working in AGL (above-ground-level) and pilots in MSL, which led to two sets of numbers that had to be reconciled by the pilot. Thunderbird pilots now also climb an extra 1000 feet (305 m) before performing the Split S maneuver.
- 20 August 2005: The Thunderbirds temporarily grounded themselves pending an investigation into a minor mid-air incident during the Chicago Air & Water Show. During the diamond pass in review, the tip of the missile rail on the right wing of the slot (#4) aircraft contacted the left stabilator of the right (#3) aircraft. A four-foot section of the missile rail snapped off, while the No. 3 aircraft sustained damage described by one of the Thunderbirds pilots as a "medium deep scratch" to the red paint of the stabilator. This is why the USAF Thunderbirds have taken extra precaution when flying their diamond, changing from about one and a half feet wingtip to canopy separation to around three feet. Still very close while going 450+ mph. They now fly as close as 18-inch Fuselage to Canopy separation during the arrowhead loop and roll. Amateur video showed the missile rail falling into the "safety box" on Lake Michigan away from boaters. While there were no injuries and the aircraft remained flight worthy, the demonstration was immediately terminated, all aircraft returned to Gary International Airport, and the Thunderbirds did not perform on the second day of the Chicago show. The right wing pilot (#3) was Major D. Chris Callahan, and the slot position (#4) was flown by Major Steve Horton.
- 2 June 2016: Major Alex Turner, flying Thunderbird No. 6, crashed in a field near Colorado Springs, Colorado after performing a flyover at the United States Air Force Academy graduation ceremony. The F-16 pilot ejected and was unhurt.
Other fatalities
- 11 December 1954: Capt George Kevil was killed during solo training at Luke in an F-84G.
- 26 September 1957: 1st Lt Bob Rutte was killed in solo training at Nellis.
- 9 October 1958: 19 men aboard the Thunderbirds' support C-123 were killed in a crash about 50 miles northwest of Boise, Idaho, while en route to McChord AFB, reportedly when the transport struck a flock of geese.
- 12 March 1959: Capt C. D. "Fish" Salmon was killed in solo training at Nellis.
- 27 July 1960: Capt J.R. Crane, advance pilot and narrator for the team, was killed during a solo proficiency flight at Nellis.
- 6 April 1961: Maj Robert S. Fitzgerald, Commander of the team, and Capt George Nial, advance pilot and narrator, were killed during a training flight at Nellis.
- 9 May 1964: Capt Eugene J. "Gene" Devlin was killed when his Republic F-105B broke apart as it pitched up for landing from a three-plane formation pass over Hamilton Air Force Base, California.
- 12 October 1966: Maj Frank Liethen and Capt Robert Morgan were killed in a collision of two F-100s during opposing Cuban Eights, their F-100F crashing, at Indian Springs Auxiliary Field in Nevada. The F-100D managed to land at Nellis AFB, despite wing damage.
- 9 January 1969: Capt Jack Thurman was killed in solo training at Nellis.
- 21 December 1972: Capt Jerry Bolt and TSgt Charles Lynn were killed during a flight test at Nellis.
- 25 July 1977: Capt Charlie Carter, Thunderbird pilot and narrator, was fatally injured during maneuvers at F. E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming.
- 8 September 1981: Lt Col David L. Smith, commander of the Thunderbirds, was killed when his aircraft ingested seagulls while taking off from Cleveland, Ohio. Lt Col Smith's T-38 crashed into Lake Erie, and although Lt Col Smith ejected from the a/c, his ejection seat malfunctioned and did not deploy his parachute (his crew chief successfully ejected from the rear cockpit).
- 18 January 1982: The "Diamond Crash", the worst training crash in Thunderbird history, occurred when Maj Norman L. Lowry, Capt Willie Mays, Capt Joseph N. Peterson, and Capt Mark Melancon were killed while practicing a diamond loop during training at Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field in T-38s.
Relationship to other USAF aerial demonstration teams
The first USAF jet-powered aerobatic demo team was the "Acrojets", performing early in 1949 with F-80Cs at the USAF Fighter School at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona, and was headed by Col (then Capt) Howard W. "Swede" Jensen. This team flew together until August 1950, when it was inactivated due to the American commitment to the Korean War. Additionally, there was also a later USAFE "Acrojets" team in Germany, this one made up of USAF T-33 Shooting Star instructor pilots at Fürstenfeldbruck AB in the mid-1950s.
The "Skyblazers" were the USAF demonstration team representing the United States Air Forces Europe (USAFE) from the late 1940s through the 1950s. This team was formed in early 1949 by a group of 22d Fighter Squadron pilots from the 36th Fighter Wing at Fürstenfeldbruck Air Base in Germany. At this time they were flying Lockheed F-80B Shooting Stars. The unit transitioned to the F-84E in 1950, the F-86F in 1955 and the F-100C in 1956. Two of the original Skyblazer team members, identical twins C.A. "Bill" and C.C. "Buck" Pattillo, went on to become members of the first Thunderbird team.
Unlike the Thunderbirds, the Skyblazers seldom appeared outside of the realm of USAFE operations in Europe. The Skyblazers were disbanded in January 1962 when their home squadron was rotated back to the United States and their assigned aircraft transitioned to the F-105 Thunderchief.
The "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" were a group of four C-130 pilots and their planes who were officially recognized as an aerial demonstration team by the USAF's Tactical Air Command in 1957. They flew as an aerial demonstration team until 1960.
Thunderbirds museum
The Air Force maintains a Thunderbirds Museum covering the history of the demonstration team. The museum is located at Nellis Air Force Base and includes a full size F-16 "Gate Guard" on display (in full Thunderbird paint scheme).
USAF Thunderbirds Decorations
- Decorations
Lineage
- Organized as: 3600th Air Demonstration Team, 25 May 1953
Assignments
- 3600th Fighter Training Wing, 25 May 1953 - 23 June 1956
- USAF Advanced Fighter School, 19 November 1956 - 25 February 1967
- Tactical Air Command, 13 February 1967
- USAF Tactical Fighter Weapons Center, 25 February 1967
- 57th Fighter Weapons (later, 57th Tactical Training; 57th Fighter Weapons; 57th Fighter; 57th) Wing, 15 February 1974 - Present
Stations
- Luke AFB, Arizona, 1 November 1952 - 23 June 1956
- Nellis AFB, Nevada, 19 November 1956 - 25 February 1967
- Nellis AFB, Nevada, 25 February 1967 - Present.
Aircraft
- Republic F-84G Thunderjet, 1953
- Republic F-84F Thunderstreak, 1954-1955
- North American F-100 Super Sabre, 1956-1963
- Republic F-105 Thunderchief, 1964
- North American F-100 Super Sabre, 1964-1966
- North American F-100 Super Sabre, 1967-1968
- McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom II, 1969-1973
- Northrop T-38 Talon, 1974-1981
- General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, 1983-Present.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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