{"id":59133,"date":"2025-03-31T23:26:49","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T21:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=59133"},"modified":"2025-04-06T23:29:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T21:29:13","slug":"the-extreme-skill-of-the-usaf-thunderbirds-f-16-fighter-pilots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/03\/31\/the-extreme-skill-of-the-usaf-thunderbirds-f-16-fighter-pilots\/","title":{"rendered":"The extreme skill of the USAF Thunderbirds F-16 fighter pilots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Thunderbirds is the name given to the Air Demonstration Squadron of the United States Air Force (USAF), founded in 1953.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/03\/04\/a-flight-of-the-frecce-tricolori-over-chicago-seen-from-one-of-their-planes\/\">A flight of the Frecce Tricolori over Chicago seen from one of their planes<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/12\/06\/a-spectacular-aerial-exhibition-by-the-blue-angels-in-san-francisco-bay\/\">A spectacular aerial exhibition by the Blue Angels in San Francisco Bay<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>This squadron began flying with Republic F-84G Thunderjet fighters. Since 1983, it has flown the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, initially the A (single-seat) and B (two-seat) variants, which were replaced in 1992 with the F-16C\/D (Block 32). <strong>Since 2009, the Thunderbirds have flown the F-16C\/D (Block 52)<\/strong>, proving that 51 years after its first flight, this fighter remains exceptional.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This unit currently flies eight aircraft (six single-seat F-16Cs and two two-seat F-16Ds)<\/strong>, and its pilots demonstrate extreme skill, with maneuvers in which the aircraft fly in close proximity to each other, as seen last year at the 2024 Battle Creek Airshow in Michigan. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@AirshowStuffVideos\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AirshowStuffVideos<\/a> <strong>has released a video of this display<\/strong>, recorded from the balcony of the control tower at Battle Creek's W. K. Kellogg Airport (turn up the volume if you want to really enjoy the sound of these planes):<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"From the Tower! USAF Thunderbirds LOUD and CLOSE! - Battle Creek Airshow 2024\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Cpak3HAS5m8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>You can see some screenshots from this spectacular video here, which begins with a low, high-speed flight near the control tower.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54423089750_8cba5c912a_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54422958773_4423102284_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54422958768_9ab7b882d3_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54422958778_7bd1ba4d90_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Thunderbirds is the name given to the Air Demonstration Squadron of the United States Air Force (USAF), founded in 1953.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11546],"tags":[24100,24099,24102,1257,17806,8078,10431,6761],"class_list":["post-59133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-military-aviation","tag-battle-creek","tag-battle-creek-airshow-2024","tag-battle-creek-w-k-kellogg-airport","tag-general-dynamics-f-16-fighting-falcon","tag-michigan","tag-thunderbirds","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-air-force-usaf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59133"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}