What's the better demonstration team, the Blue Angels or the Red Arrows?

Answer 1

I may be biased because I was Navy, but the Blue Angels are the best, had a buddy that got assigned to them years ago. Think about this, can the Red Arrows, Snowbirds, or Thunderbirds launch from a carrier deck at the beginning of their shows? They did it for fleet week in Frisco years ago off my first ship, The USS Abraham Lincoln. The winner hands down..............? The Blue Angels!
The Blue Angels are comprised of Navy and Marine pilots with years of experience flying in the fleet. Here's two sites below.
Go Navy!


This is an exerpt from Chris H's post below:

"The biggest weakness of the US military is that it has an excess of self confidence and a lack of introspection. Everything American is automatically best. It's hard to learn when you always assume your answers are automatically the only correct ones."

You make it sound as if no one else here appreciates anyone else but the US. I have seen the other flight demo teams, and in my OPINION, the Blue Angels are best. So what? You sound like you're touting the Red Arrows yourself, and to take a snippet of that last paragraph you posted, "Everything American is automatically best". Sounds like to you, everything British is automatically best.

I also liked your comment on the carrier takeoff and landing being a common thing that a demo or test pilot could do. Lets see you do it bud, in the dead of night on a pitching deck. Then tell me how easy it is. I'm sure you think it's commonplace because the Brits use VSTOL aircraft to do it. You're post is a reflection of how closed-minded you think we americans are. Re-read your post and tell us different.

Answer 2

Blue Angels

Answer 3

Snowbirds. I've never seen the Red arrows - I would love to. I've seen Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, Snowbirds and some civilian teams many times. The Snowbirds are by far the best in my opinion. Sure they have old trainers in stead of high powered fighters, but the things they do with them! I found that both the Angels and Thunderbirds rely heavily on speed and power and also use 'scare' tactics to excite the audience (flying from behind at high power settings) where the Snowbirds conduct complex aerial maneuvers in tight formation as well as the head-on crossovers to create excitement. I must admit that I am partial being a Canadian myself.

Answer 4

Blue Angels

Answer 5

Blue Angels are good fighter pilots, but "blue angels" is only a "demonstration team", "acrobatic teams" are a higher level, and "red arrows" is an acrobatic team.
But the best acrobatic team in the world is "Frecce Tricolori(Italian team).It's the biggest team (10 airplanes) and the only team in the world that is able to "correct perspective" in formation flight, they "distort" the formation in order to appear more perfect, because human eye is affected by some errors of perception.
Frecce Tricolori are also the only acrobatic mounted on the only jet plane able of performing some maneuvres that are reserved to propeller airplanes, like "Lomcovak" and "Scampanata".
Take a look to these videos...

Answer 6

With the choice that is given, I have to answer "Red Arrows" (it's a Brit thing). The Blue Angels display is all about power, whereas the Reds put on a much more accomplished display.

But actually some of the best displays I have ever seen were given by the Italian "Frecce Tricolori", just a little bit of added flair (as opposed to flare) and style to their display.

Answer 7

There's 300 million Americans who watch TV that shows nothing but the Blue Angels, so naturally they think they are the best. They are certain because Discovery Channel tells them that they are.

But I've seen the Blue Angels, Snow Birds, Patrouille de France, Frecce Tricolori, Thunderbirds and the Red Arrows. They are all good, but what the Blue Angels do with 4 the Red Arrows do with 9, and that's way more difficult. It's impressive to watch the rolling 9 ship formations, you see the flash of the sun off all nine at once because they are locked together.

Taking off and landing on a carrier is no big deal, it's a relatively common skill, any display or test pilot could do it.

The greatest testiment that I saw to the Red Arrows was at Greenham Common in 1983, they flew last after the other display teams, all the other teams turned out to watch.

I wonder if the Red Arrows will tour the US, it would be interesting to see them fly at the same show as the US and Canadian teams and see what people say then.

The biggest weakness of the US military is that it has an excess of self confidence and a lack of introspection. Everything American is automatically best. It's hard to learn when you always assume your answers are automatically the only correct ones.

Answer 8

Blue Angels, they are the navy's demonstration team. Their F-18 Hornet fighter planes are very capable of doing better stunts than the Red Arrows....but, it is really just personal preference...

Answer 9

The US Navy's very own 'Blue Angels' Flight Demonstration Squadron.

Answer 10

out of those two, the Blue Angels win. But out of all the show teams in the country, the ThunderBirds ROCK THE HOUSE!!!