5 Card Grace
by Alex Esguerra
Title
5 Card Grace
Artist
Alex Esguerra
Medium
Photograph - Color Photograph
Description
Few flight demonstration teams inspire the awe within the thousands of people that will flock to see them. The mere mention of their name often illicit a moment of pause as individual who heard it thinks of aircraft carving up the skies at blazing speeds and in ways that are considered impossible.
They are the Thunderbirds. A flight demonstration team of the United States Air Force founded in 1953, they are the unit that show the globe what the mix of precision and raw power the USAF is capable, be it a ear shattering high speed pass at near the speed of sound or a group of their planes executing graceful turns with as little as 18 inches between jets. Since 1953, they have been the Air Force's "Ambassadors In Blue", spreading goodwill and inspiration wherever they go, and leaving in their wake collective gasps, reverent "oohs" and many a ear to ear grin.
The Thunderbirds have flown many aircraft over the decades; the F-16C Falcon (or Viper if you prefer the informal moniker) is the current one. In this photo taken at "Thunder Over Solano", the teams drops out of a loop in the 5-Card formation. I chose this photo because the 5-card (as far as I know) is unique to them, and it looks alarmingly complicated to fly. But the Thunderbirds performed it with ridiculous ease. Id expect nothing less from the best that USAF aviation, if not the world, has to offer.
Uploaded
May 5th, 2014
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