ANGELS ABOVE

The U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels are celebrating its 75th anniversary. Today we take a look at how it started.

ORIGINAL BLUE

The pilot considered the “father” of the Blue Angels is Roy “Butch” Voris. Voris was born in Los Angeles, went to high school and community college in Northern California and graduated from flight school in Oakland. He became a highly decorated pilot in World War II and after the war was a flight instructor for the Naval Advanced Training Command in Daytona Beach, Florida. The first official show of the Navy Flight Exhibition Team was in June 1946. Later that summer the pilots were in New York, where they became familiar with the Blue Angel nightclub. Voris liked the name and made it the team’s moniker. Voris was the first commander of the Blue Angels in 194647. The group was disbanded due to a pilot shortage during the Korean War, but Voris was asked to assemble a new Blue Angels flight team in 1951. Voris was involved in a midair collision in 1952 and managed to land his fighter jet. After his second run with the Blue Angels, Voris commanded an attack carrier air group in the Pacific. Voris retired in 1963 and lived in Monterey until his death in 2005 Some of the stunts Voris developed for the Blue Angels routine are still in use.

A FEW MOVES

The Blue Angels typically perform more than 30 aerobatic stunts. Pilots say their demonstrations are full of basic techniques taught to all Navy and Marine Corps aviators but are refined a little for the show. While flying in their famous diamond formation, planes can be as close as 18 inches apart.

Roy “Butch” Voris