Take Flight with the Blue Angels

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Over the course of 78 years, more than 500 million people have seen the Blue Angels perform at air shows around the world and have witnessed the power and grace of some of the US Navy’s aircraft. The vision to establish a Naval flight exhibition team came in 1946 from the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Chester Nimitz, with hopes of boosting Navy morale and demonstrating Naval air superiority. Within a year, the team began flying its famous diamond formation that is still used to this day.

Throughout its history, the Blue Angels continued to adapt and demonstrate the best of the Navy. With the evolution from the Hellcat, all the way to the F/A-18 Super Hornet E/F, the Navy’s Blue Angels represent over seventy-five years of aviation excellence.

Here in the Still Picture Branch at the National Archives, we have many photographs within our holdings that show the world-famous flight demonstration team throughout the decades, capturing hearts and thrilling spectators with each performance.

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Headquartered at NAS Pensacola, Florida, the Blue Angels are an American icon. This select team seeks to promote the Navy’s culture of excellence to millions through various heart-stopping shows each year by performing intricate maneuvers and formations with more precision and accuracy than the last.

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These shows wouldn’t be possible without the incredibly hardworking ground support crew, and the beloved fan-favorite: Fat Albert – the Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules that carries the team’s maintenance and support equipment from place to place as the flight demonstration team makes its way through each air show season.

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Eager to see more? Fly over to the National Archives Catalog to see more records on the Blue Angels! You can also check out another blog previously posted on The Unwritten Record:

• Summer Road Trip: Maritime Matters in Bremerton and Seattle, Posted August 1, 2019

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The photographs included in this post have no known copyright restrictions. If you have any questions about the images in this post or the holdings of the Still Picture Branch, please contact us at stillpix@nara.gov.

PUBLICATION OF PHOTOGRAPHS FURNISHED BY THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES STILL PICTURE BRANCH-RRSS

Generally, copies of photographic records held by the National Archives may be published without special permission or additional fees. The National Archives does not grant exclusive or non-exclusive publication privileges. Copies of Federal records, as part of the public domain, are equally available to all. A small percentage of photographs in our holdings are or may be subject to copyright restrictions. The National Archives does not confirm the copyright status of photographs but will provide any information known about said status. It is the user’s responsibility to obtain all necessary clearances. Any use of these items is made at the researcher’s or purchaser’s own risk.

Proper credit lines are encouraged in the interest of good documentation. They also help inform the public about government photographic resources that are available.

*Because so many of our requests for information cite credits and captions that appear in published works, the inclusion of a photo number in hard copy and electronic publications is of great assistance to both us and the public.

Examples of preferred credit lines are as follows:

• National Archives photo no. 210-G-C241
• Credit National Archives (photo no. 83-G-41368)
• Courtesy National Archives, photo no. 83-G-41430
• National Archives (210-G-A14)

If using a large number of our images, the National Archives will appreciate receiving copies of publications that contain our photographs. Such copies can be sent to the Still Picture Branch or the Library, National Archives and Records Administration.