opinion of Blue Angel/Thunderbirds flyovers

[dead0man]

link

To start, flyovers cost America money. According to the Washington Post, each flight hour for the Blue Angels and Thunderbird squadrons costs at least $60,000; with flyovers planned for at least 22 cities between both squadrons, that's a rough cost of at least $1.32 million — enough to purchase dozens of ventilators at, say, $20,000 a pop.

To be fair, this isn't money that's suddenly being allocated to flyovers out of nowhere: one unnamed military official told the Post that "the cost of the flights will come from money already in the Pentagon budget," while The War Zone rightly notes that both Blue Angel and Thunderbird pilots and their support personnel still need to constantly train to maintain their proficiency with the aircraft.

"Whether they are in or working on gray or colorfully painted jets doesn't change that," as The War Zone's Tyler Rogoway notes. "Why not at least use that flight time to spread a positive message and give people a little joy in what has been bleak and uncertain period?"

Perhaps it's less a matter of cost and more a matter of symbolism. If the goal is to send a message of support and solidarity to front-line workers, wouldn't a better sign involve putting more of the 27,000 former soldiers who volunteered to come back into the service to good use? Or answering the call for an influx of personal protective gear to, say, those VA hospitals that are currently struggling without?

[SevenEleven]

Climate change

Post a picture on the internet, it's cheaper, easier, and safer. And it will probably reach more people.

[anthonyjg]

A sign of a dying empire

[Grassroots]

Bad ass

[cris01us]

You want to talk about unnecessary or wasteful military spending, we could go down that rabbit hole for a little while...lol.  Flyovers, heck that's nothing compared to ________________ (fill in the blank). 

[AGA]

Approve, the money was already allocated anyway. America needs to flex its military sometimes. I wouldn't mind an occasional military parade.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Would support ending both squadrons even if the military were earning money off of the shows. Embarrassing relics of twentieth century militarism.

[Orwell]

I like them, personally. It's not like the government really needs to save $1.32 million so I'd like to keep them they're really cool and when I was younger they sparked my love of airplanes.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

They literally just flew over Pompano last week. I wasn’t too excited about it but people were on all the bridges the other day.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! YOU CAN'T JUST SPEND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN A PANDEMIC ON POINTLESS FLYOVERS JUST TO IMPRESS NERDS AND HOTHEADS WHEN WE NEED VENTILATORS AND STIMULUS MONEY FOR JOBS!!! THIS IS JUST A JINGOISTIC COVER-UP WHILE NURSES ARE DYING!! NOOOOOOOOOOO

haha big planes go woosh

[It’s so Joever]

If we actually enforced a lockdown that was strict, I would be all for it as it would greatly increase morale and indicate we are all in this together.
The thing is, we don’t need to increase morale because Americans are still acting like everything is normal. Just ask a certain guy from Mississippi.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Stupid waste of money, every penny counts, pennies can save lives.... Give monies to PPE funds instead

[RI]

An essential part of Seafair.

[Mr. Reactionary]

Bloat.

[Fuzzy Bear]

I'm all in!

Think of all the money wasted building stadiums and arenas for professional jock sports (at public expense), then tell me about this.

[vitoNova]

Proof that the US defense budget is bloated and needs massive trimming.

Nobody cares about air shows.