Posted on 10/22/2014 5:27:47 AM PDT by do the dhue
Rich Shelton loves airplanes and San Francisco, which shows in all his beautiful photos. He was able to take this incredible image of a Blue Angels' F/A-18 zooming through the Golden Gate bridge at Fleet Week in San Francisco.
They are here in Jax. Fl. this weekend. I work close enough to the NAS that I can hear the aircraft in the show practicing (right now as a matter of fact). Got a connection in the USN that might pull off getting me a couple of VIP tix. I’ve seen them a couple of times over the years here..............always brings goosebumps and reminds me we live in the greatest country in the world.
Why is no one looking up?
Why isn't this guy looking in the pic? And you cant say nobody is looking up, most of the people have their back turned in the picture so, you can't see which way they are looking.
Also, when I was stationed in West Germany, we had a four buildings in a square called a quad. When fighter jets flew over, you could hear them over one building (say the north building), but you had to look over the south building to see it. Maybe, that is the case here?
Sounds awesome. I wish I could go see them.
Most of the people are looking in the direction of where the plane is flying. Having walked over that Bridge during Fleet Week I can tell you that a Blue Angel flying anywhere in the vicinity would draw quite a bit of attention even if it were miles away. There are no buildings to block the sound, either.
An important purpose of the Blue Angels is to rattle the bones of our city communists from time to time. The message is: don't even think it. Of course the commies try to ban them: Measure banning Blue Angels from San Francisco skies
If ya ever get a chance, dont miss it.
I saw them at Jones Beach a few years ago.
Awesome.
.
If you look at that picture you’ll notice that the Hornet has little condensation clouds forming on the fuselage. This is the start of a “Mach Diamond” that forms as the aircraft nears the speed of sound. So chances are the guy with his back turned is looking at something else, and the sound of the Hornet just hasn’t reached him yet.
The USAF Thunderbirds have a part of their routine called a Sneaky Pete. One Viper will fly low and slow in front of the crowd. When it passes crowd center a second will blow by at transsonic speed (just below the speed of sound) and make everyone’s heart jump into their throats. There’s a version of this where the second Viper approaches from behind the crowd too ...
I’ve actually seen, no, experienced, a Sneaky Pete performed by a B-1B. I’m pretty sure my insides were still rattling and vibrating 5 minutes later.
That is awesome and I would love to experience that!
One of Boeing’s test pilots, Tex Johnson, with his 2 passes/2 rolls of the prototype Boeing Dash-80, (precursor to the soon to be famous 707), at 400 feet above Lake Washington during ‘halftime’, of Seattle Seafair’s 8/7/1955 Unlimited Hydroplane race was pretty cool to see. Then Boeing honcho Bill Allen later asked Tex what the hell he was thinking!!! “Just tryin’ to sell airplanes” he responded!
“Why is no one looking up?”
Good point. I didn’t notice that part either. But nice shopping in any case.
200 foot mins over a populated area. This was cool but probably very naughty.
Navy spokesperson said F/A-18 Hornet strike fighter was likely flying at a speed of 350mph when Shelton snapped the photo
The U.S. Navy won’t confirm the authenticity of any photo not shot by an official Navy photographer, but Lieutenant Amber Lynn Daniel, confirmed to AOL.com that the Blue Angels were practicing around the time the photo was shot.
Photo and caption by Nerry P. Fernandez
The Number 5 jet of Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squadron flew very low over the Golden Gate Bridge to line up with his routine in front of the crowd at Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf. This flight demonstration was for 2011 Fleet Week of San Francisco, California. I took this photo on October 8, 2011 at 3:32 pm. I set my self up at the Golden Gate Park parking lot.
Location: The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California, USA
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/photo-contest/2012/entries/160728/view/
so it’s not like they haven’t flown that low over the bridge before
Someone in SF told me that after WW2, fighter planes returning from the Pacific ALL flew through the GG Bridge.
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