The US company McDonnell Aircraft received a request in 1942 for a jet fighter which could be operated from U.S. Navy aircraft carriers. The eventual result was the FH-1 Phantom, a twin-engined craft that was only moderately faster than the best propeller fighters of the time. The Navy ordered 100 planes (only 60 were actually built), and the first units were delivered in 1947. They were used to equip one Navy and two United States Marine Corps squadrons. They were the first carrier-based pure jet fighters acquired and put into operational service by the Navy.
A jet aircraft is an aircraft propelled by jet engines.
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat against other aircraft, as opposed to bombers and attack aircraft, whose main mission is to attack ground targets. The hallmarks of a fighter are its speed, maneuverability, and small size relative to other combat aircraft.
Contents
The Marines used a few of their planes to form an aerial formation-flight demonstration team, dubbed The Flying Leathernecks (which was also the title of a 1951 film starring John Wayne, concerned with Marine aviation activity in World War II).
Marion Mitchell Morrison, known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed 'Duke', was an American actor, filmmaker and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. He was among the top box office draws for three decades.
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.
Three flag officers in the Navy, Admiral Daniel V. Gallery and Rear Admirals Apollo Soucek and Edgar A. Cruise, checked themselves out in the Phantom and made fly-by appearances at the inauguration ceremony of New York City's Idlewild Airport and the 1948 Cleveland Air Races. They referred to themselves as The Gray Angels, a reference to the actual Navy flight-demonstration team known as the Blue Angels (formed in 1945, the Blue Angels' official title was U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Team, and they were first referred to as Lancers, but within a few months the references were changed to Blue Angels).
The City of New York, usually called either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States and in the U.S. state of New York. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km2), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.
The National Air Races are a series of pylon and cross-country races that took place in the United States since 1920. The science of aviation, and the speed and reliability of aircraft and engines grew rapidly during this period; the National Air Races were both a proving ground and showcase for this.
The Blue Angels is the United States Navy's flight demonstration squadron which was initially formed in 1946, making it the second oldest formal flying aerobatic team in the world, after the French Patrouille de France formed in 1931. The Blue Angels' McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornets are currently flown by five Navy demonstration pilots and one Marine Corps demonstration pilot.
The "Grays" flew in various air shows during the summer of 1947, but the team was abruptly disbanded after their poorly timed arrival at a September air show in Cleveland, Ohio nearly caused a head-on low-altitude collision with a large formation of other aircraft. [1]
An air show, is a public event where aircraft are exhibited. They often include aerobatics demonstrations, without they are called "static air shows" with aircraft parked on the ground.
