At the end of World War II, Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, the Chief of US Naval Operations, ordered the formation of a flight demonstration team to keep the public interested in Naval Aviation and boost Navy morale. Lt. Cmdr. Roy “Butch” Voris, a veteran flying ace with eight air victories to his credit, was chosen as the new flight team's commander, and given the task of selecting the rest of the pilots and ground staff.
Flying the Grumman F6F Hellcat, the main Navy fighter during WWII, the group's first aerial demonstration took place less than a year later on 15 June 1946 at Jacksonville's Craig Field.
For the first month of its existence, the flight demonstration team flew without a name. Officers at Navy Headquarters had proposed “Navy Blue Lancers,” a moniker the pilots rejected. As the group prepared for a show in New York that July, Lt. Maurice “Wick” Wickendoll came across an advertisement in the New Yorker for that city's famous Blue Angel nightclub. The first demonstration under the Blue Angels name was a show in Omaha, 19 July 1946.
By the end of the 1940s, the Blue Angels were flying their first jet aircraft, the Grumman F9F-2 Panther. In response to the demands placed on Naval Aviation in the Korean Conflict, the team reported to the aircraft carrier USS Princeton as the nucleus of Fighter Squadron 191 (VF-191), “Satan's Kitten,” in 1950.
AirVenture 2024 a typical afternoon show from the flightline & camp
