On 19 September 1985, the USAF Air Demonstration Squadron was consolidated by
Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA) with the 30th Bombardment Squadron, a unit which was organized on 13 June 1917. During its operational history, the 30th served in
World War I as a training unit in
France, its mission to train fighter pilots to go into combat on the
Western Front. The squadron was almost torpedoed on its troop ship crossing the
Atlantic Ocean. Stationed at
Clark Field in the Philippines on 7 December 1941, it was almost wiped out in the
1941 Battle of the Philippines. Some members of the squadron fought as an infantry unit and were captured by the
Japanese, being subjected to the
Bataan Death March. The squadron was withdrawn to
Australia, being reformed and later attacked Japan as a
B-29 Superfortress squadron in 1945. It was awarded nine
Presidential Unit Citations in
World War II. During the
Korean War, the 30th attacked
North Korean targets with B-29's. Present-day USAF Thunderbirds carry the lineage, history, and honors of the 30th on active duty. The team had flown 26 shows by that August. The first team leader was Major
Richard C. Catledge (1953–1954), and the first plane used by the unit was the straight-wing
F-84G Thunderjet. Because the Thunderjet was a single-seat fighter, a two-seat
T-33 Shooting Star served as the narrator's aircraft and was used as the VIP/Press ride aircraft. The T-33 served with the Thunderbirds in this capacity in the 1950s and 1960s. The next year the Thunderbirds performed their first overseas air shows, in a tour of
South and
Central America, and added a permanent solo routine to the demonstration. In the spring of 1955, under their second commander/leader (September 1954 – February 1957), Captain
Jacksel M. Broughton, they moved to the swept-wing
F-84F Thunderstreak aircraft, in which they performed 91 air shows, and received their first assigned support aircraft, a
C-119 Flying Boxcar. This practice remained in force through the 1973 season. In 1961, the team was compelled to discontinue the vertical bank maneuver due to an FAA regulation prohibiting aerobatics that pointed the nose of the aircraft toward the crowd. The year 1962 saw the introduction of dual solo routines, and the Thunderbirds went on their first European deployment in 1963, the year after the disbanding of the (see below). The team switched to the
F-105 Thunderchief for the 1964 season, but were forced to re-equip with the F-100D after only six airshows due to a catastrophic structural failure of the No. 2 aircraft during a pitch-up maneuver that resulted in the death of Capt Gene Devlin at
Hamilton Air Force Base on 9 May. The F-100D Super Sabre was retained through the 1968 season.
F-4 Phantom II era By 1967, the Thunderbirds had flown 1,000 shows. In 1969, the squadron re-equipped with the front-line
F-4E Phantom, which it flew until 1973, the only time the Thunderbirds would fly jets similar to those of the Navy's
Blue Angels as it was the standard fighter for both services in the 1960s and 1970s.
T-38 Talon era The team flew only six air shows in 1973 and was grounded for some time. Due to the
1973 oil crisis, they switched to the more economical
T-38 Talon for the 1974 season, as five T-38s used the same amount of fuel as one F-4 Phantom. The switch saw an alteration of the flight routine to exhibit the aircraft's maneuverability in tight turns, and ended the era of the black tail on the No. 4 slot plane, now regularly cleaned and shined like the others. In 1982, the Thunderbirds suffered a
catastrophic loss during pre-season training on While practicing the four-plane diamond loop, the formation impacted the ground at high speed, instantly killing all four pilots: Major Norman L. Lowry (commander/leader), Captain Willie Mays, Captain Joseph N. "Pete" Peterson, and Captain Mark Melancon. The 2007 European Goodwill Tour was the Thunderbirds' first visit to Europe after the
11 September attacks. During this tour, the Thunderbirds performed at their first-ever air show in
Ireland. Despite inclement weather, more than 100,000 people attended the air show, garnering nationwide exposure by Irish media. Additional stops along the way included aerial demonstrations in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria's
Graf Ignatievo Air Base,
Italy, France and
England, where the Thunderbirds participated in the
Royal International Air Tattoo, the world's largest military air show. Outside of aerial demonstrations, the team participated in eight official public relations events attended by
heads of state and local civic leaders. The team also conducted community outreach by meeting with needy children throughout Europe. On 10–11 November 2007, the City of
Las Vegas and
Nellis AFB saluted the
U.S. Air Force, hosting the capstone event of the USAF's 60th anniversary celebration. ,
Robins AFB. It was flown by the Thunderbirds between 1982 and 1992. In 2008, the Thunderbirds remained in North America, performing both in the United States and in
Canada. When
Quebec City celebrated its 400th anniversary, the Thunderbirds joined the
Canadian Armed Forces's
Snowbirds, the British
Royal Air Force's
Red Arrows, and the
United States Navy's Blue Angels in a ceremonial flight over Quebec City. Later in the year, the team returned to Canada for the
Abbotsford International Airshow at
Abbotsford International Airport,
British Columbia. In 2009 the Thunderbirds hired their first-ever
Air National Guard pilot, Lt. Col. Derek Routt as Thunderbird No. 7 (operations officer), and the first-ever
Air Force Reserve Command pilot, Maj. Sean Gustafson, also joined the team as Thunderbird No. 4 (slot). The 2009 Far East Tour took the team to multiple locations on the western border of the
Pacific Rim and included performances in
Hawaii, Australia,
Malaysia,
Guam,
Thailand,
Japan and
South Korea. More than 1.2 million people saw the shows in person and more than 120 million were exposed to the shows through their national media. These are conservative estimates as one Korean prime-time television show alone reached eight million. The top-rated show "Qualifications of Man" did a one-hour feature on the Thunderbirds and resulted from a coordinated media pitch to the network and the
Republic of Korea Air Force. In addition to the air shows, the Thunderbirds personally met and spent time with more than five hundred special needs children and orphans. The entire 2013 flying season was canceled due to
budget cuts resulting from the
United States fiscal cliff. Team members made recruiting appearances in the Las Vegas area that did not require travel. Enlisted personnel performed gate checks and base housing inspections. Performances resumed in 2014.
Historical demonstration aircraft ;Republic
F-84G Thunderjet :Employed by the Thunderbirds 1953–1954. ;Republic
F-84F Thunderstreak :The Air Force selected the
swept-wing F-84F Thunderstreak as their second aircraft in 1955, modified for the team by adding smoke tanks, and red, white and blue
drogue parachutes. Used from 1955 to 1956. ;North American
F-100C Super Sabre :With the change to the
F-100 Super Sabre in 1956, the Thunderbirds became the world's first supersonic aerial demonstration team. That same year, the Thunderbirds moved to Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, simplifying logistics and maintenance for the aircraft. The Thunderbirds used the C-model Super Sabre from 1956 to 1963. ;Republic
F-105B Thunderchief :Only six shows were flown in 1964 using the F-105 before safety concerns resulted in the team's adoption of the F-100D. ;North American
F-100D Super Sabre :The D-model Super Sabres were used from 1964 to 1968. ;McDonnell
F-4E Phantom II :The 1969 conversion to the F-4 was the most extensive in the team's history. Among other modifications, paints that had worked on the F-100 appeared blotchy on the F-4 because of multicolored
alloys used to resist heat and
friction at
Mach 2 speeds. A
polyurethane paint base was developed to resolve the problem. The white paint base remains a part of today's Thunderbird aircraft. A popular myth is, given the exhaust emissions of the F-4's engines, the
vertical stabilizer of the No. 4 slot aircraft was painted flat black. However, this is false; the vertical stabilizer of the No. 4 slot aircraft was allowed to be blackened by jet exhaust starting in 1960. Phantoms were used from 1969 to 1973. ;Northrop
T-38 Talon :The fuel crisis of the early 1970s resulted in the selection of the
Northrop T-38A Talon, a supersonic trainer. Five T-38s used the same amount of fuel needed for one F-4 Phantom, and fewer people and equipment were required to maintain the aircraft. Although it met the criteria of demonstrating the capabilities of a prominent USAF aircraft, the Talon failed to fulfill the Thunderbird tradition of flying front-line jet fighters. The team flew the Talon from 1974 to 1981.
Accidents In total, twenty-one Thunderbirds pilots have been killed in the team's history. Only three fatal crashes have occurred during air shows, two of them in jets: The first was the death of Major Joe Howard, flying Thunderbird No. 3 (F-4E s/n
66-0321) on 4 June 1972 at
Dulles Airport, during
Transpo 72. His Phantom experienced a structural failure of the horizontal stabilizer, and Major Howard
ejected as the aircraft fell back to earth tail first from about 1,500 feet and descended under a good canopy, but he landed in the aircraft fireball and did not survive. The second death occurred 9 May 1981 at
Hill AFB, Utah, when Captain David "Nick" Hauck flying Thunderbird No. 6 (T-38A) crashed while performing the hi-lo Maneuver. Capt Hauck crashed while attempting to land his ailing T-38 after an engine malfunctioned and caught fire. With black smoke billowing from the exhaust and the aircraft losing altitude in a high nose-up attitude, the safety officer on the ground radioed Capt Hauck: "You're on fire, punch out!" To that, he responded: "Hang on... we have a bunch of people down there". The aircraft continued to stay airborne for about half a mile before hitting a large oak tree and a barn, then sliding across a field and flipping as it traversed an irrigation canal—ultimately erupting into a fireball just a few hundred feet from the runway's end. No one on the ground was injured, even though the accident occurred adjacent to a roadway packed with onlookers.
Air shows • 24 September 1961: TSgt John Lesso of the Thunderbirds
C-123 crew was killed when a USAF C-123 carrying the
Army Golden Knights, on which he was flight engineer, crashed during takeoff at an airshow in
Wilmington, North Carolina. • 4 June 1972: Major Joe Howard, flying Thunderbird No. 3 (
F-4 s/n 66-0321), was killed during the Transpo '72 airshow at
Dulles International Airport in
northern Virginia. Immediately after takeoff, Stricklin attempted a "
Split S" maneuver (which he had successfully performed over 200 times) based on an incorrect
mean sea level (MSL) elevation of the airfield, higher than the home base at
Nellis AFB. Climbing to only
above ground level instead of , Stricklin had insufficient altitude to complete the maneuver, but guided the F-16C aircraft down the runway away from the spectators and ejected less than one second before impact. He survived with only minor injuries and no one on the ground was injured, but the $20 million aircraft was completely destroyed. Official procedure for demonstration "split S" maneuvers was changed, and the USAF now requires Thunderbird pilots and airshow ground controllers to both work in
above-MSL altitudes, as opposed to ground control working in AGL (
above-ground-level) and pilots in MSL, which led to two sets of numbers that had to be reconciled by the pilot. Thunderbird pilots now also climb an extra before performing the Split S maneuver. • 20 August 2005: The Thunderbirds temporarily grounded themselves pending an investigation into a minor mid-air incident during the
Chicago Air & Water Show. During the diamond pass in review, the tip of the missile rail on the right wing of the slot (#4) aircraft contacted the left
stabilator of the right (#3) aircraft. A four-foot section of the missile rail snapped off, while the No. 3 aircraft sustained damage described by one of the Thunderbirds pilots as a "medium deep scratch" to the red paint of the stabilator. This is why the USAF Thunderbirds have taken extra precaution when flying their diamond, changing from about one and a half feet wingtip to canopy separation to around three feet. Amateur video showed the missile rail falling into the "safety box" on
Lake Michigan away from boaters. While there were no injuries and the aircraft remained flight worthy, the demonstration was immediately terminated, all aircraft returned to
Gary International Airport, and the Thunderbirds did not perform on the second day of the Chicago show. The right wing pilot (#3) was Major D. Chris Callahan, and the slot position (#4) was flown by Major Steve Horton. • 2 June 2016: Major Alex Turner, flying Thunderbird No. 6, crashed in a field near
Colorado Springs, Colorado after performing a flyover at the
United States Air Force Academy graduation ceremony. The F-16 pilot ejected and was unhurt. Investigation revealed that the aircraft's engine was inadvertently shut down at the start of landing procedures when a faulty throttle trigger permitted the throttle to be rotated into an engine cut-off position. In a strange twist later that day, the Thunderbirds' Naval counterparts in the
Blue Angels suffered a fatal crash of their own. • 23 June 2017: Capt. Erik Gonsalves was injured when, during landing, Thunderbird No. 8 ran off the runway and overturned prior to the
Vectren Dayton Air Show. The pilot and a passenger, Technical Sgt. Kenneth Cordova, were trapped in the aircraft for over an hour. Cordova was uninjured. The investigation revealed excessive air speed coupled with landing too far down a wet runway caused the jet to leave the airstrip and flip over. Rain on the canopy windscreen and failure to follow proper braking procedures during the landing contributed to the accident.
Other fatalities • 11 December 1954: Capt George Kevil was killed during solo training at Luke in an F-84G. • 26 September 1957: 1st Lt Bob Rutte was killed in solo training at Nellis. • 9 October 1958: Nineteen men aboard the Thunderbirds' support
C-123 with a crew of 21 were killed in a crash about northwest of
Boise, Idaho, while en route to
McChord AFB, Washington, reportedly when the transport struck a flock of
geese. Only two men survived. • 12 March 1959: Capt C. D. "Fish" Salmon, slot pilot, was killed after a collision during formation training near Nellis. • 27 July 1960: Capt J.R. Crane, advance pilot and narrator for the team, was killed during a solo proficiency flight at Nellis. • 6 April 1961: Maj Robert S. Fitzgerald, commander of the team, and Capt George Nial, advance pilot and narrator, were killed during a training flight at Nellis. • 9 May 1964: Capt Eugene J. "Gene" Devlin was killed when his Republic F-105B broke apart as it pitched up for landing from a three-plane formation pass over
Hamilton AFB, California. • 12 October 1966: Maj Frank Liethen and Capt Robert Morgan were killed in a collision of two
F-100s during opposing
Cuban eights, their F-100F crashing, at
Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field in
Nevada. The other, an F-100D, managed to land at Nellis AFB, despite wing damage. • 9 January 1969: Capt Jack Thurman was killed after a mid-air collision in training north of Nellis; the other F-100D returned safely. • 21 December 1972: Capt Jerry Bolt and TSgt Charles Lynn were killed during a flight test at Nellis. • 25 July 1977: Capt Charlie Carter, Thunderbird pilot and narrator, was fatally injured after an aborted landing attempt in
Cheyenne, Wyoming, and crashed into the
Frontier Days rodeo arena. • 8 September 1981: Lt Col David L. Smith, commander of the Thunderbirds, was killed when his aircraft ingested seagulls while taking off from
Cleveland, Ohio. His T-38 crashed into
Lake Erie, and although Smith ejected from the airplane, his ejection seat malfunctioned and did not deploy his parachute (his crew chief successfully ejected from the rear cockpit). • 18 January 1982: The "
Diamond Crash", the worst training crash in Thunderbird history, occurred when Maj Norman L. Lowry, Capt Willie Mays, Capt Joseph N. Peterson, and Capt Mark Melancon were killed while practicing a diamond loop during training at Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field in
T-38s. Only two Thunderbird pilots survived. Both Thunderbird Numbers 5 and 6, the solo pilots.
Relationship to other USAF aerial demonstration teams The first USAF jet-powered aerobatic demo team was the "
Acrojets", performing early in 1949 with
F-80Cs at the USAF Fighter School at
Williams Air Force Base,
Arizona, and was headed by Captain Howard W. "Swede" Jensen. This team flew together until August 1950, when it was inactivated due to the American commitment to the
Korean War. Additionally, there was also a later
USAFE "Acrojets" team in
West Germany, this one made up of USAF
T-33 Shooting Star instructor pilots at
Fürstenfeldbruck AB in the mid-1950s. The "" were the USAF demonstration team representing the
United States Air Forces Europe (USAFE) from the late 1940s through the 1950s. This team was formed in early 1949 by a group of
22d Fighter Squadron pilots from the
36th Fighter Wing at Fürstenfeldbruck AB in West Germany. At this time they were flying Lockheed
F-80B Shooting Stars. The unit transitioned to the
F-84E in 1950, the
F-86F in 1955 and the
F-100C in 1956. Two of the original Skyblazer team members, identical twins
C.A. "Bill" and
C.C. "Buck" Pattillo, went on to become members of the first Thunderbird team. Unlike the Thunderbirds, the Skyblazers seldom appeared outside of the realm of USAFE operations in Europe. The Skyblazers were disbanded in January 1962 when their home squadron was rotated back to the United States and their assigned aircraft transitioned to the
F-105 Thunderchief. The "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" were a group of four
C-130 Hercules transport pilots and their planes who were officially recognized as an aerial demonstration team by the USAF's
Tactical Air Command in 1957. They flew as an aerial demonstration team until 1960.
Thunderbirds museum The USAF maintains a Thunderbirds Museum covering the history of the demonstration team. The museum is located at
Nellis Air Force Base and includes a full size F-16
gate guard on display (in full Thunderbird paint scheme).
Decorations • Decorations : :
Air Force Outstanding Unit Award :: 25 Feb 1967 – 31 Dec 1968; 1 Jan – 31 Dec 1973; 1 Jan – 31 Dec 1974; 1 Jan 1979 – 31 Dec 1980; 1 Jun 1995 – 31 May 1997; 1 Jun 2001 – 31 May 2003; 1 Jun 2004 – 31 May 2006 : :
Air Force Organizational Excellence Award :: 1 Jan 1984 – 31 Dec 1985; 1 Jan 1986 – 31 Dec 1987; 30 Sep 1989 – 30 Sep 1991; 1 Jun 1997 – 31 May 1998
Lineage • Organized as: 3600th Air Demonstration Team, 25 May 1953 • : Inactivated on 23 June 1956 • Organized as: 3595th Air Demonstration Flight, 19 November 1956 • : Re-designated: 4520th Air Demonstration Flight, 1 July 1958 • : Re-designated: 4520th Air Demonstration Squadron, 1 January 1961 • : Discontinued on 25 February 1967 • Constituted as: USAF Air Demonstration Squadron, and activated 13 February 1967 • Organized on 25 February 1967 • Consolidated on 19 September 1985 with 30th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), first organized on 13 June 1917
Assignments 4520th Air Demonstration Squadron • 3600th Fighter Training Wing, 25 May 1953 – 23 June 1956 • USAF Advanced Fighter School, 19 November 1956 – 25 February 1967 USAF Air Demonstration Squadron •
Tactical Air Command, 13 February 1967 • USAF Tactical Fighter Weapons Center, 25 February 1967 •
57th Fighter Weapons (later, 57th Tactical Training; 57th Fighter Weapons; 57th Fighter; 57th) Wing, 15 February 1974 – present
Stations 4520th Air Demonstration Squadron •
Luke AFB, Arizona, 1 November 1952 – 23 June 1956 • Nellis AFB, Nevada, 19 November 1956 – 25 February 1967 USAF Air Demonstration Squadron •
Nellis AFB, Nevada, 25 February 1967 – present
Aircraft 4520th Air Demonstration Squadron •
Republic F-84G Thunderjet, 1953 •
Republic F-84F Thunderstreak, 1954–1955 •
North American F-100 Super Sabre, 1956–1963 •
Republic F-105 Thunderchief, 1964 • North American F-100 Super Sabre, 1964–1966 USAF Air Demonstration Squadron • North American F-100 Super Sabre, 1967–1968 •
McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, 1969–1973 •
Northrop T-38 Talon, 1974–1982 •
General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, 1983–present. ==Notable members==