Word: skyhawk
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...pilots perform spectacular feats of daring in the blue sky, diving from thousands of feet in their shiny blue A-4 Skyhawk fighters, twirling, somersaulting, sometimes almost dancing in tandem at more than 300 m.p.h. Most of the time the display of flying finesse comes off without a hitch. In the 39 years since the Navy's elite Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Team was established, some 168 million onlookers have watched the Angels' shows, mouths agape at the sheer skill and bravery involved...
...occasion, however, something goes wrong, and a fortnight ago it did. In Niagara Falls, Lieut. Commander Robert Michael Gershon, 32, was piloting his Skyhawk through a stunt called the opposing blivot, in which two planes approach head on, then, as they come within 200 ft. of each other, go into steep climbs. At the peak of the stunt, the pilots pull out of a 6,000-ft.-high loop, point their planes downward and crisscross paths at a 45° angle. It was during that precisely timed climax that Gershon's plane and another A-4 collided. The pilot...
...first time. Jack listened as his father explained what happened that day 32 years ago, how he had swooped down on central Hanoi and released his bombs over the city's power station just before the surface-to-air missile tore the right wing off his A4E-Skyhawk. But when Jack learned that his father's bombs had missed their target, he turned to him with a sly smile. "All that, and you didn't even hit it?" McCain laughed...