8) Hey This is my second poll and i know that there is a large interest in aerobatics, and so i thought i would start a poll.  Who is the best, a very hard queston to answer! Well being British i would have to say the Red Arrows, not just because i am British but they are the best i have ever seen.  I go to Farnbrough airshow, England and i see alot of aerobatics even an A340 being hurled around like an Extra 300.  I have put what i think are the main MILITARY aerobatics teams on the poll, but if you know others please let me know i will be very interested. 

Thanks

I've seen many military aerobatic display teams over the years from the Thunderbirds to the Black Arrows performing their famous formation loop and barrel roll with 22 Hunters during the 1958 Farnborough Display. This is still a world record.



One team I have never seen are the Canadian Snowbirds. All are excellent in their own way although I'm not sure they always have the most suitable aircraft. I once saw a team trying to do formation aerobatics in F-104 Starfighters on full A/B. Impressive - yes, noisy - certainly, but entertainment? - NO. They were out of sight of the crowd for most of the display. The Patrouille de France always perform well & the Frecce Tricolori regularly put on the most impressive & original display sequence I've ever seen before their unfortunate accident.

Being a Brit I would have to go with the Reds for consistency, skill & sheer entertainment value. I've seen them many times but they still impress me.  

I've seen Patrole de france quite a few times and I have always enjoyed them. Their commentator is great. I'm not a huge Frecce Triccolori fan but that is not to say they are not an excellent display team. I just find they do a lot of big formation stuff with just the one solo for most of the show. I saw the Blue Angels fly F-4 Phantoms when I was a very little kid, but don't remember much about them. But after all that, the Red Arrows still get my vote. I've seen them loads of times and they never fail to impress and entertain. I've got some 8mm film of the Reds flying Gnats at Finningly airshow that my Dad shot back in the 70's.

I've only seen the Blue Angels

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Maybe I'll see you there then. Are you prepared for that? 

I only voted for the Red Arrows because they are the only one I've seen on the list. I was really hoping to see the Thunderbirds at the Canadian International air show but only one F-16 came by.

Although I have seen interesting pictures of the Thundebirds.

The Thunderbirds!!!!!!!!!  Nobody beats the T-Birds!!  I think the Blue Angels are a very close second-you ain't seen nothing until you've seen the 'birds or the angels fly-truly amazing.

  The "Blue Angels" are Number 1.  I've seen both the "Thunderbirds" and "Angels" many times and think the "Angels" put on a better show.
  But ya gotta love that paint job on the "Thunderbirds" F-16!!

i've seen the Patrouille de Suisse twice...and they are amazing. i can't describe what they did, but it was awesome...

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I would also like to ask, why did you say that you like the Blue Angles, Is it because you are American?

I admit that alot of people from the UK will vote for their own country, but you have to at least credit the Arrows!  All of the Teams are amazing and i think i will keep the opll oper for a while longer, just out of interest!

I respect your opinion and hope that you will respect mine!

There are lot's of Aerobatics teams in the Military world, just do a search on the net for "Military Aerobatic Teams" and it will bring up loads of sites with info!  (on Google.com)

Anyone seen the bats? I don't know how well they fly but they ripped of the Thunderbirds paint scheme.

Well when you see a Hawk do a roll at 30 feet you will love the Red Arrows.

And Hagar, maybe I will see you... But I warn me if I'll be needing to run away very fast. Maybe you could get some shots looking down on them for me. I'll get shots looking up. LOL!

Oh yeah and I saw the a340-600 doing aerobatics at farnborough 2002 with the a318 (wonderful little screamer I love it to death.) It was very impressive. Its actually quiter than the a318.

The BLue Angles are too aggressive and gung ho?  The first time I saw them I nearly fell asleep it was so boring.  Once I saw a non-Blue Angel U.S. Navy pilot doing some aerobatics.  On takeoff he tried to turn to soon and his wingtip would have struck the runway had he not checked himself.  He flew again the next day and I noticed he waited a few more seconds before turning.

The Snowbirds were better/more exciting then the Blue Angeles, but still not terrible impressive.  I do have a semi-funny story about these guys, though.  They were using a room in my flight school for their briefings.  I was in a room down the hall practicing instrument approaches on some modified PC simulators.  I forget what the simulator was called, but they had these big boxes with basically a fake cockpit on the user end, and there was a yoke coming out of it and buttons for example where the heading bug knob (OBS, or whatever you call it, I forget) were to move the heading bug around, etc.  Anyway, it was all pretty cheesy, in my opinion.  Well, this Snowbird pilot comes walking along and sticks his head in.  "MY GOD" he says out loud with a tone of incredible awe, like he just saw a F-16 take off going backwards.  He stood there in the doorway for about fifteen seconds, slack-jawed in awe of all our cheezy simulators, then walked out.  I thought it was funny as hell, because someone who probably has access to state-of-the-art military sim technology was blown away by our cheezy yoke-sticking-out-of-a-box sims--even our old, stained, clunky Frasca 141 sims where about 10 times better than these cheezy things.  Maybe Canadian pilots are that strapped for cash then don't even have PC-type simulators.

The Snowbirds weren't the only military pilots who used our flightschool for various purposes when they were in town.  It was always neat to be getting weathing info in our flight planning room right next to U.S. Air Force pilots, who usually came in for airshows.  I always thought "don't these guys have some secret sattalite uplink programmed right into their cockpits".  But our flight palling room was pretty good.

Anyway, the first time I saw the Thunserbirds, I was as slackjawed as that Snowbird pilot at the sight of our cheezy sims.  They are the best I've seen, and an order of magnitude better than the Snowbirds or Blue Angeles.  Real balls-to-the-wall stuff with the Thunderbirds.

I'm not a big fan of aerobatic flight and don't catch them very often anymore, but the best (military and civillian) I've seen is Patty Wagstaff in her Extra.  Imagine if you could clone her and have some all-Patty Wagstaff formatin flying.  That would be incredible.

And that just reminded me--this is just dumb gossip--but I had a friend who years ago was at one of those camps where rich parents send kinds who are hooked on drugs and basically total screwups, and he said Patty Wagstaff's kid was there too.

hey redwing.
the blue eagles are hardly a small team, they are prob the best helecoptor display team in the world, and with the recent addition of the apache they can only get better, but as said they are helecoptor display, they are the army air corp team in the uk, if you do a search there is a website you should check its a good site

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Right y2cragie, I understand! Let's see......the Red Arrows are the best military aerobatic team (jets), and the Blue Eagles are the best helicopter display team! OK, got it! (Hmmm, might you reside in the UK perchance?)

Well, that's OK.....you're probably not any more biased toward your own country than I am mine. Of course, whatever criteria one uses to judge or rate these teams is entirely subjective......sort of like those Olympic events (gymnastics, freestyle skiing, ice-skating); the highest scores always come from the home judge!

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Yep, looks like Ozzy called this one!

Hi all, if you go to the Red Arrows site
( www.raf.mod.uk/reds/redhome.html ) There is alot to learn from the site!

hmmmmmm, flying in cyprus, dozzing around while not flying, avoiding the brittish winter........... I want his job!

I'm hoping to go to a couple airshows this year. I might even get to go to the Reno air races!

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I was wondering that too.  
As Ozzy & Redwing pointed out, this comes down to understandable national pride + what you've seen to compare it with. In over 50 years of visiting air displays on a regular basis I've seen all the great display teams at one time or another except the Snowbirds & maybe the Blue Angels. I really can't remember & I'm not sure they ever visit the UK or Europe. I'm sure they're all excellent in their own way & it's difficult to be completely unbiased. It also depends on what you like to see in a display. My main criterion is a smoothly flowing, original schedule with the team in sight of the crowd at all times. This is impossible with some types of aircraft which restricts the display to separate passes in different formations with spaces in between while the formation regroups. I find this boring & soon lose interest. This is my opportunity to head for the beer tent. 

The teams that have most impressed me in all this time have been the Red Arrows, Frecce Tricolori & Black Arrows in that order.

I agree that alot of voting will be on national grounds, but i have to agree that the Blue Angels are to Gung Ho.  The Red Arrows get a certain balance just right.

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Yes I do. That is why I am sitting this one out.

But it sure is an entertaining read.  

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Right.....wondered that myself! I've only seen the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels.

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I saw the same thing years ago! I can't remember this particular stunt pilot's name, but he had his name spelled upside down on the plane's fuselage, so you'd read it normally when he landed inverted....he thus advertised his specialty! Very impressive flying!

The Snowbirds are the Best in my book.

I've seen my country's "Blue Impulse", mmm impressive but mmmmm something lacking...

I've seen the Blue Angels... They blew my feet off!! Soooo damned close and lots of high-performance flying. Was quite fun to watch... (Saw them at NAS Lemoore a bit back. Around 2001 or somewhere around then)

BUT

The Snowbirds... Yummy..... Can't beat 9 Aircraft flying around, beautiful artwork on the aircraft and $hit, they fly WITH MUSIC.... The music just makes them seem better..... I love to see them just "fly around", not fast, but not slow, It just seems relaxing to me.......

I thought the Snowbirds were on the verge of being disbanded though??