1/72 F-35A United States Armed Forces

Air Demonstration Composite Unit

Gallery Article by Alvis 3.1

Silly Week 2007

 

In the 2020s, severe economic issues both at home and abroad caused some extreme measures to be undertaken by US military organizations. Two such units where the US Air Force and the US Navy Blue Angels Aerial Demonstration Squadrons. Since the F-22 had turned out to far too expensive to purchase for the Thunderbirds, the USAF turned to the hot new jet, the F-35, which was already under evaluation by the US Navy as well. However, restrictions on the overall numbers was pushing both groups to very small teams of perhaps 2 or 3 aircraft. In the midst of this dilemma, a nameless accountant at the GAO (General Accounting Office) came up with the perfect solution:

Amalgamate the two teams!

It was said you could hear the screaming from orbit once this idea got out. "It will never work" screamed the brass. "We can't train the same way" said the pilots. "What are THOSE wrenches for?" asked the airframe techs. "How do we do the paperwork?" cried the paperpushers. "I'm not wearing THAT #$@!*&% uniform!!!" said more than one Navy pilot. But, in the end, the teams were forced together, and in the spirit of traditional shotgun weddings, the new team, the "Thunder-Angels" (or "Blue-Birds" if seen from below) was based in Arkansas!

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The planes were painted in both schemes, so they could be "The ThunderBirds" when passing right to left, and the "Blue Angels" when passing left to right. Separate planes for knife edge passes were painted top/bottom specific as well.

Alvis 3.1

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Photos and text © by Alvis 3.1