202 Squadron

At the Bentwaters Armed Forces Day ,1970.

USAF '67-14904'. US Armed Forces Day at the USAF base 'RAF' Bentwaters....aircraft transferred later to Turkey

Two of the US Navy's Blue Angels Phantoms doing their party trick at the 73 Bentwaters Air Show

At the Bentwaters Armed Forces day, 1970. U.S. serial 56-4018. Written off in 1973

Delivered in 12.43. At date of image the aircraft was serving with the based 81st Tactical Fighter Wing in a supporting role. Retired in 09.63.

Seeing the mighty Phantom thrown around as a formation team aircraft was certainly memorable. This Blue Angels bird later went on to become an EF-4J with VAQ-33

After its RAF career this Red Pelicans team JP was registered G-BWCS to the Jet Provost Club at Bournemouth. De-registered 2013 and to a private owner in Sheffield

Another shot of Blue Angels ship '6' - this time plus '5', which was Bu Aer 153876 (c/n 2450) - lost 7.8.73 during airshow at Lake Charles, LA. Pilot ejected safely, but shortly after the Blue Angels transitioned to the more manageable A-4. Look at the serial numbers - they happened to be almost a mirror image too! It may appear like a Photoshop clone job, but I can assure everyone it's straight from the slide. Quite a performance for big heavy jets

All six Blue Angels (153072/1, 153081/2, 153084/3, 153829/4, 153876/5 & 153076/6) along with their support KC-130F. At the end of the following year, the team re-equipped with the smaller A-4F

53 Sqdn's "Heracles" was one of the 10 Belfasts delivered to the RAF in 1965 and went on to become Heavylift's G-BFYU

This was Blue Angels Fat Albert #1 in the original white colours - although there are many online shots of the later blue/yellow colours on the replacement Hercules (surprising to find six different ones have been used since), it is much less commonly found in this scheme. Replaced a C-121J support aircraft in 1970 and served the Angels till 1973, then reverting to a normal Marines career which took her through to AMARC retirement in 2.06

Taken soon after delivery to RAF Bentwaters, Suffolk, for operation by the based 81 Tactical Fighter Wing. It retains the all-grey factory finish and buzz code FJ-855.

Delivered to USAF in January 1963, remaining in service until at least 2003.

There are plenty of images on the internet of an F-4 in the Speyer museum pretending to be 153072, but this is the real Blue Angels ship #1 and was only the second production F-4J. Written off in a collision with 153081 (ship #4) at NAS Lakehurst, NJ on 26.7.73 - just two months after this photo - during a practice session