Pulling 7Gs in an F-18 Fighter Jet With the Blue Angels

- Welcome to Naval Air Station Pensacola, home of one of the most legendary aerial demonstration teams in the world, The US Navy's Blue Angels. The team flies six F-18 super hornets in precise formation at speeds hundreds of miles per hour flying as close as just 18 inches from wing to wing. Now today we've got two main objectives.

Get an up close look at the team and the jets to learn more about how they operate and something I'm very excited yet incredibly nervous for, I'm gonna have the chance to strap into the backseat, one of these F-18s myself to experience pulling 7 1/2 times the force of gravity in what will hands down be the craziest flight of my life. So yeah, with that, let's go. (upbeat music) (plane engine revs) - [Thomas] Here we go.

Ready? Hit it. ♪ Unmistakeable ♪ - Hey Sam, Thomas Zimmerman.

Call sign's Franz, Blue Angel number seven. You can call me Thomas, Franz, Seven, whatever will work. - Well, it's great to be here.

First off, I just wanna say I grew up such a massive fan of the Blue Angels. You guys like actually inspired me to kind of be doing what I'm doing today, so thank you. And second, you've got probably the coolest office in the world.

I mean, tell me a little bit about it. - Yeah, Sam. So this is a Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet.

Right behind us is an Echo model. It's a multi-mission strike fighter capable of airspeeds as high as almost 1200 miles per hour. It can do anything really, you know, from air to ground delivery, to air to air, to landing on a boat.

- Now I mentioned earlier that you guys fly as close as 18 inches apart, which alone is crazy, but what I can't believe is that this isn't just straight and level flying. I mean you guys are doing barrel rolls, flying inverted pulling Gs, doing all of that at like 18 inches apart. So what's the training like to be able to fly at that type of precision?

- Yeah, so we get to 18 inches, but that's not day one. So that training starts in El Centro, California where we have a naval air facility. We go out there for roughly three months and over 120 flights.

So we start out much farther apart and then every day slowly work to get better and better and closer together. ♪ Unshakeable ♪ - In 2021, we transitioned from the Legacy Hornet to the Super Hornet. One of the big differences here is the leading edge extension or the lex, is what we call, is bigger as well as we start getting over here to the leading edge flaps.

And you can see they're actually extended out here which helps our slow speed flight. Additionally, what you can't see, 'cause we don't have a Legacy sitting next to us, is we're now a third larger. So this airplane's 33% bigger, which, you know, allows us to fly slower, but also gives us, you know, the ability to carry a lot more fuel.

So our combat radius and everything is increased and we can stay airborne longer. - Are they still flying the Legacy in the Navy or is they all phased out? - So the United States Navy does not fly the Legacy anymore.

The Marine Corps still has a few Legacy squadrons that'll be flying around. - Okay. - That you'll see.

And at the Blue Angels here we represent both the Navy and the Marine Corps. - Yeah. - So, we kind of catch a little bit of all of it.

♪ Unmistakable ♪ - So I've heard that every F-18 assigned to the Blue Angels can actually return to an aircraft carrier, be combat ready in just 72 hours. So first, is that true? And second, what are the main differences between these blue and gold jets and the standard F-18?

- Yeah, so every F-18 that we have here at the Blue Angels could return back to the fleet and to combat in 72 hours. We still have things installed such as the tail hook here. Things that we're missing are the gun from the nose.

Now how we get that, that's where the smoke tank is. And you can see here, that's where the piping will actually come out in front of the left motor. All the things that we have that are slightly different we have a spring in there that's a 40 pound spring that's constantly pulling the stick forward to let us fly that precision flying 18 inches apart.

On top of that, we also have, there's things as small as a little stopwatch to make sure we hit show center at the exact same time. - [Sam] Is there a lot that changes when you do strap into the two seater version versus the single seat? Any like, does it feel the same?

- [Thomas] The only difference I'll say is the canopy. - [Sam] That's it? - That's the biggest thing.

- [Sam] Flies the same way? - [Thomas] Yeah, flies exactly the same way. - [Sam] Okay.

- And then the funny thing is, so we're all gonna try and time at the beginning of the show for our canopies to shut and close at the same exact time. But when you look at the canopy, it's twice as large. - [Sam] Yeah, so you're trying to time it.

- We're guessing on that time, makes it a little bit more difficult. - [Sam] Yeah, no, I gotcha. - So as we walk around here you can see probably from the Air Force our landing gear's a little bit more beefy than Air Force landing gear.

- [Sam] Yeah. - That's just based off the fact, you know, when we land on the aircraft carrier, it's a angle of attack approach. So we're gonna fly 8.

18 degrees AOA all the way to touchdown to put that hook point at a very specific spot for our LSO or paddles that are on the back of there. And then once we actually land, you can see here on the front of the nose gear, there's the launch bar. So we have a switch up in the cockpit that'll put that launch bar down, engage the shuttle, and that's where we go from 0 to 150 plus miles an hour in just a couple seconds.

Cool, so here on the F-18 we have a trailing link gear. So as you can kinda see, it's bent backwards right now. Once we get weigh off wheels, that'll actually swing forward and that helps when we're landing on the aircraft carrier.

We're at 800 some feet per minute rate of descent as we crash down onto the carrier. ♪ Unbreakable ♪ - Now I know you must get questions about "Top Gun" all the time, especially since the new movie came out featuring the F-18. But what I heard is that they actually brought in Blue Angels pilots to fly some of the low level sequences in the movie because you guys are the only ones that can fly at such low altitudes.

Is that true? - That is true. So they did bring in some former Blue Angels to fly some of those scenes, from the Dark Star low transition where the roof comes off to, you know, some of those canyons and those low altitude flying were flown by former Blue Angels.

- And what you haven't said, is that you're actually a TOPGUN graduate yourself which is crazy. So what was that experience like? And then how was it actually watching the movie as someone that went through it?

- Man, very humbled and fortunate to have been able to go through and graduate from TOPGUN. Watching the movie, fantastic movie. What is really impressive is they did their research and those communications and how the pilots are talking to each other is absolutely correct for how we would talk to each other in combat.

- Well I know you gotta practice here shortly so I'll let you go, but I'm so excited to strap into the backseat with you in just a little bit. So I think in the meantime, I'm gonna be practicing my G-strain a little bit, but can't wait to catch you soon. - Awesome Sam, we'll see you up there in the cockpit.

We'll get you flying shortly. (upbeat music) - Now while the team is briefing up and getting ready to take off for their next show, I thought I'd introduce you to one of the more unique aircraft the Blue Angels fly. This is Fat Albert, also known as Bert, and it's a specially modified C-130 J model flown by an entirely United States Marine Corps crew.

Now Fat Albert serves an incredibly important role of transporting all the team support personnel and maintenance equipment. And I know Fat Albert probably doesn't get the same recognition as the F-18s, but without Bert, the show literally does not go on. Every year the Blue Angels perform 60 shows across 30 different locations and for each show they have to transport their team of 143 personnel, tens of thousands of pounds of maintenance equipment and everything else that comes on with putting on such a demanding performance.

(upbeat music) - Fat Albert is the ultimate workhorse, covering a distance of nearly a 100,000 miles every single year. It's definitely earned my respect. If you have a second, drop a like on the video below in honor of Bert.

All right, now one of my favorite parts of the show is actually before the Blue Angels even take off in what is known as the pre-show. Everything is broken down into a precise cadence. And I love watching the movements of the crew chiefs and the maintainers before they salute the pilots off on their way out.

I don't know, it just gives me chills every time. (upbeat music) (plane engines rev) All right guys, so that takeoff is what I'm about to experience. I hope you're ready 'cause it's time to fly.

(upbeat music) All right guys, I'm here at Scott Air Force Base to catch back up with the Blue Angels on their incredibly busy air show schedule. Now that right there is Blue Angel number seven and in just a few minutes I'm gonna strap in and go for probably the craziest ride of my life. I'm definitely nervous, I'm definitely excited, but I can't wait to bring you along.

This is gonna be crazy. - [Thomas] Okay, here we go. - [Sam] Let's do it.

Boom. (hands clap) (plane engine revs) - [Thomas] All right, Sam, you ready for it? - Let's go.

- [Thomas] All right, here we go, here's military power. Pick up to max AV. - [Sam] Oh man, you feel that.

- [Thomas] Yep, there's 50 knots. - Here we go. - [Thomas] Here's 100.

- Here we go. - [Thomas] 120. - [Ground Crew] I don't see them, I see them rolling.

- [Thomas] Here's 140. All right, we are airborne. There's 200.

250. All right, there's 300 and Sam, you ready for it? - Let's go.

- All right, here we go. Ready, hit it. (plane engine roars) Nice job.

- Whoo, oh my God. Wow. - [Thomas] Yeah.

Pretty awesome, huh? - Wow. Oh my god.

Woo. - I'm with you, passing 5,500 for 6,500. - Dude.

That was crazy. - [Thomas] All right, ready for 4Gs to the left? - Let's do it.

- All right, here we go. Ready? Hit it.

Take that breath. Squeeze those legs. Alright, there's 4Gs.

Hold that breath a little bit longer. There you go, that's a better cadence. Alright, now release the breath.

Just squeeze your legs for me. Just squeeze those legs, you can feel. We can do 4Gs by just squeezing our legs.

All right, we're rolling out of the 4Gs. - Whoa, whoa, whoa. - [Thomas] Nice.

How'd you feel on that? - Yeah, I mean, you definitely feel it more and more. - [Thomas] Yeah.

So 4Gs, there you can see, we can work that one with just our legs. We're gonna work a little bit harder before we can use a little bit of breath to kind of help hold a little bit of that blood. All right, 6Gs to the right.

Sam, you ready for it? - Let's go. - Here we go.

Ready? Hit it. Coming to the right.

- [Ground Crew] 4000. - [Thomas] There it is. Exchange that breath.

Nice. All right, rolling out. Nice job.

- Wow. (Thomas laughs) Yeah, 6Gs- - How are you just talking to me through that? - [Thomas] Well, we've done it once or twice.

Cool, so we'll kind of slow down now. This next maneuver is gonna keep us at less than 2Gs. - Okay.

- So, up we go. It'll start that pull on the G. - [Ground Crew] 2000, I have a heavy KC-135 south of you on- - [Thomas] And then as we get to about 22 degrees nose height, he's gonna give an okay and we'll start that turn.

Nice, easy and just imagine there's three to five people flying formation on of us. - Wow. - As we're doing this.

Coming back out. It's nice, easy. - Yeah.

- [Thomas] Nothing too crazy. Ready? Hit it.

Here we go. Just squeeze those legs, just a hair. - [Ground Crew] The final.

- There's 4Gs. - [Ground Crew] Direct, downtown. - [Thomas] We're gonna squeeze those 4Gs until we hit about seven alpha.

There's seven degrees AOA. You'll feel the Gs will ease off a little bit. If you look out there, you can pick up our smoke trail.

- [Sam] Oh wow. - [Thomas] Cool, as we kind of come down the backside you actually see our shadow too. Pretty nuts.

And squeeze those legs just a hair as we get about a 3 1/2G recovery on the back side. Nice job. Here we go.

Ready? Hit it. Rolling.

Turn that pole. Then you recapture from there. All right, so we're right to 5Gs.

That breathing's pretty good. Good rate on the breathing. - [Ground Crew] Maintain.

- [Thomas] Nice job, we're almost through it. - [Ground Crew] For red approach. - [Thomas] There it is, we'll pull about 30 past.

We'll give ourselves a little turbo nose low on the backside - [Ground Crew] Helicopter, altitude 1,100, just passing by the marker. - Whoa. - [Thomas] There it is, with the turbo nose low exit.

A nice job. - [Ground Crew] Happy 6,6 heavy. Power 120.

25. - Oh, yeah. - [Thomas] That's a worker, isn't it?

- Yeah, gimme a second. Whoo. - [Thomas] Yeah.

- [Ground Crew] we'll kick the smoke on. Fox 0. 9.

We're gonna clear just of these clouds, . 92. All right.

Sam, you ready for it? - Let's go. - [Thomas] All right, here we go.

Ready? Hit it. Squeeze those legs.

(gentle music) Whoop, you're (indistinct). Here comes the rolls. Hey Sam, how you doing?

- [Sam] Good. - [Thomas] Back with me? - [Sam] I am.

- [Thomas] All right. You feeling better? - Yeah, I think I'm okay right now.

- [Thomas] All right, cool. All right, there we are, 400 knots. Pumps are on.

You ready for it? - Let's go. - Here we go, Sam.

So we're pulling up, we'll roll over upside down. Here comes a little uncomfortable push. - Boom.

- Yeah. Now look around, kind of look to the left and right. Imagine trying to fly formation like this upside down.

So not the most comfortable, there's negative 1. 1, but we're truly just hanging out. Not a whole lot that we could do.

There's 15 seconds. (Thomas laughs) Not the world's most comfortable thing to do, huh? - No.

Oh, gimme a second. - [Thomas] Yeah. Ready?

Hit it, going right. There's a pull. There's five.

Keep working it. Keep working, we're almost done. There's three and a half.

All right, we're rolling out. Gs coming off. Nice work.

- [Sam] Home, sweet home. - [Thomas] Back on solid Earth, huh? - [Sam] Absolutely wild.

(gentle music) That was absolutely insane. Oh my God. It's good to see you again.

Dude, it was like crazy. Yeah, you know, I fought it pretty well. I did pass out on that fricking 7 1/2 straight turn one, 'cause you lose second for a second.

- [Thomas] Yep. - Oh. I feel like I was just hit by a train.

- [Thomas] Yeah. - Like. That was the craziest experience of my life.

- Yeah. Well, you did a great job. - You are amazing.

Thank you. - It's not easy. - No.

- But, now not only do you have the video- - Oh my gosh. Something to remember it by. - Yeah, a memory- - Look at that.

- To prove that we actually did it. - Well, thank you so much. I mean, that's been a bucket list for my entire life, so I appreciate it.

Hopefully you guys watching this learned something new. A shout out to the entire Blue Angels team. I don't know what else to say.

I guess, catch you next time. - Nice job.