General Dynamics video feat. USAF Thunderbirds - 1986
To be honest they weren't flying most maneuvers as tight as we tend to think they did back in the 80s and even 90s, but then there's the PIR from '97:Cobra wrote:Delta spacing back then looks like the Diamond spacing now. And the Diamond spacing...!!!
http://youtu.be/IqgjlCCbTr8?t=3m26s
Lt. Col. Ronald Mumm was the Leader. In '98 with Lt. Col. Brian "Bbop" Bishop they didn't fly the PIR as tight anymore, but the late 90s Thunderbirds still rocked!
Even if some parts of the show was flown looser than it is even today, other parts were much tighter... and that surgical precision is harder to come by these days. I think the experience level of the pilots counts for a lot of that (just look at the requirements to apply nowadays compared to a decade ago), but also the F-16A models ( '82-91 ) and F-16C models ( '92-08 ) that the team used just seem more responsive compared to the current jets (even if they lacked the power of the F100-PW-229 found in today's Block 52s).
It definitely looks cleaner and smoother in the hands of the 80s and 90s pilots, and I'm just guessing here - but the Block 52's FBW control system seems to be a little more temperamental and not as much a pilot's extension of his own body.
