Surprise coming in future years?

WCD-01/WILDCAT · Post by **WCD-01/WILDCAT** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:49 pm

I forgot to tell this story but here it goes.

While I was at the Warner Robins air show and chatting with some of the Thunderbird officers I overheard some of the crew talking to an Air Force pilot and he brought up the F-16 RNLAF demo that uses the white winglet smoke, then one of the crew members said that the Tunderbirds during the offseason have been actually testing blue winglet smoke for possible use in the future. I'm not sure about any of you guys, but I think that would be quite interesting.

Rhino · Post by **Rhino** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:48 pm

From what a former Viper Demo pilot told me, all USAF Viper demos are eligible/certified to use those. The only reason they don't is because they cost something out the ying. Hard to see that happening with all the budget cuts going on military wide.

WCD-01/WILDCAT · Post by **WCD-01/WILDCAT** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:51 pm

Probably why it is only a test for now, I would like to see it at least once though.

Post by **Lawndart** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 3:49 pm

The Tbirds experimented with colored smoke back in the day, and the problems then were not just cost, but maintenance and avoiding a big messy cleanup after each use.

Blaze · Post by **Blaze** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 3:18 am

Oh yea I know about the mess!

Smoke oil system bursted on one of the jets in Madera, blue smoke all over the tail, it's a nightmare to get off.