Not All For Show
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DutchI wonder if the Blue Angels could do the same. I doubt it, as their aircraft have seveal items removed to reduce weight, than lead ballast added at key points to maintain dynamic stability. But a very neat story and top notch photos!
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Thunderbird F-16 was loaded with a lot more than smoke oil....
WARBIRD #10
"It was 1988; the USAF Thunderbirds were tasked by Gen Robert Russ, who was Tactical Air Commander (TAC) at the time, to put one of our Thunderbird aircraft into combat configuration in the allotted (mandated) 72 hour period, a task never done before on the team.
To make a long story short, the maintenance boys and girls worked their backsides off and had the aircraft ready in less than 72 hours with the only exception being that the jet wasn't painted (in the combat scheme). The aircraft tail number selected for this event was Thunderbird Number 10 which was 81-0679.
A couple of interesting facts in this event, the aircraft originally came to the team from the factory (I don't know that date) painted in Thunderbird colors when it later left our organization in combat gray only to be returned to us from Hill AFB again repainted with Thunderbird Red, White, and Blue to be used during the training/show season of 1990.
For the 1990 Sh
