The Navy Blue Angels and Air Force Thunderbirds aerial performance teams undertook an impressive joint flyover program in April, honoring frontline workers and first responders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Combined with National Guard flyovers, more than 100 sorties stretched across the United States in more than 40 states, soaring above communities that are not often treated to these displays of military technology and aerial precision. This new exposure to a 100-year-old tradition raised questions of how flyovers began, why they continue, and
what a flyover symbolizes today.
It is not very often that the same display would be appropriate at a football game or a funeral, but the flyover—a defined formation of aircraft passing over a gathering—pertains to both in practice and heritage. Most present-day flyovers are relatively simple affairs with fewer than six aircraft performing a routine that any flying unit might execute after a few hours of training.
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