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The Blue Angels is the US Navy's aircraft demonstration team.  I had a chance awhile back to photograph their practice session for their first airshow of the year at Fox Field in Lancaster, CA.

The team flys the Grumman FA 18 fighter aircraft that is in wide use in the Navy's fleet.  Here's a view of one of them as it sat on the tarmac prior to the show:

If the Blue Angels are performing at an airshow near you, Don't miss them! They have a complete set of activities on the ground prior to flying that are quite interesting to watch.  Here the maintenance crew is watching the engine start and smoke test prior to taxi for take off:

The flight team consists of 6 airplanes.  Four of them fly as a group, and the other two fly "solo" routines occasionally jumping into formation with the  other four.  In this next image, one of the solo planes is using a procedure called a short-field takeoff... the objective is to  get the plane off the ground in the shortest length of runway.  The  pilot has pulled the nose up very high nearly scraping the tail of the plane on the runway in the  process waiting for the instant that the aircraft achieves flying speed:

A second later, he's up, up,  and away:

Here's the 4 plane unit in a vertical climb in their "diamond" formation:

and, at one point, they leave the diamond formation and form an  "in-trail" formation.  Notice that there's no "daylight" between them!

and my favorite of this post is this four plane unit breaking out of the diamond formation into a star-burst on the four points of the compass.  It is way cool to see!

Enjoy!

Adam