Today is the final day for the Cleveland Air Show, which has featured the return of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels in their six-jet configuration.
The Blue Angels have been flying with five F-18s till this weekend. They lost Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss in June, who died in a crash in Tennessee.
Aviation fans at Burke Lakefront Airport over the weekend enthusiastically greeted the return of the six-jet delta formation. Chris Bernhard from Vermillion says it’s a point of national pride.
"With all the stunts that they do, and the coordinated previsions that these guys do, it's just unbelievable. [It] definitely represents something for the United States, because they've been around for 70 years.
Richard Essex is an amateur pilot who has volunteered at the last 36 Cleveland Air Shows, agrees.
"Well, the Blue Angels had one of their very first air shows ever here at the Cleveland Air Races in 1946. And every other year, we have the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds. And this is the 70th anniversary of the Blue Angels. They fly the oldest F-18s in the Navy: they're pretty, and they maintain them very well."
This year’s Cleveland air show also features the U.S. Army Golden Knights Parachute team, an exhibit on the Tuskegee Airmen and the Batmobile and BatCopter.
