Four crew members ejected safely after two Navy jets crash during air show in Idaho

[Deminpenn]

14. The Blue Angels are the Navy Aviation's primary recruiting tool

The Blue Angels pilots are highly skilled and the aircraft have some unique hardware adaptations that allow the planes to be flown upside down among other things. They are absolutely awesome to watch in person.

Outside of the demonstration show teams like the Blues, Thunderbirds, Canadian Snowbirds, most of the planes are solo acts.

The planes that crashed were standard F18Gs from VAQ-129 out of Whidbey Island. Electronic warfare aircraft are around to jam enemy communications. I doubt their pilots do the kind of high risk manuevering that was part of their airshow routine very often.

As for the airshows, it's very cool just to see the planes and choppers up close. If you're worried about taxdollars, a bigger source of waste is all the military tributes at sporting events including the flyovers. That's all at the behest of DoD and paid for by them, and there are alot more of those events than airshows.