Talk:United States Air Force Thunderbirds

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United States Start‑class Low‑importance

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Military history: Aviation / North America / United States C‑class

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Aviation: Air sports Start‑class

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50th anniversary date

After realizing I braincramped on the 50th anniversary date, it was clear that the "celebrates this year" was inappropriate. After all, if the DoD shuts them down next week (governments are known to do this sort of thing after all :-) ), then the article becomes misleading. If the actual 50th anniversary event is interesting in some way, then we can add description of what happened there. Stan Shebs 22:16 Feb 16, 2003 (UTC)

That's true. Probably a good idea to leave it out for now. Hephaestos 22:20 Feb 16, 2003 (UTC)

Oh, and thank you for the other improvements! Hephaestos

You figure Out My Cryptic Note

Please see the discussion at talk:Thunderbird_(disambiguation). - UtherSRG 20:16, 10 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Looking For Someone Else To Do My Work

OK, the '16s are lovely, but, it's a T-birds page, so how 'bout some of their historic aircraft, like, say, F-84, F-100, T-38? Trekphiler 20:54, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

On another note, can we do a jet demonstration teams page? Just tracking dn the Golden Hawks was a bit of a trial... Trekphiler 20:56, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Link to Pete Peterson

I think that the link for "Pete Peterson" who was part of the "Diamond crash" points to the wrong person. —the preceding unsigned comment is by Bob Collins (talk • contribs) 13:20, December 9, 2005

I fixed it --rogerd 18:53, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Images

Is it just me that thinks there are too many images in the article? Some of them should be removed or placed inside <gallery> tags. kallemax 19:28, 17 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Heh, yeah, that is a lot. My rule of thumb is that the ideal is to have an average of one illustration visible at any one time - no all-text screenfuls, particularly not for such a visual subject. The images should be a little smaller, and the less-good ones gathered into a gallery at the end (even better would be commons, but that's a bunch of re-uploading). Stan 22:14, 17 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

So be bold and make the changes you deem appropriate! I've organized the images on the page, so take a look and make sure I did an ok job. ~MDD 46 96 23:00, 1 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Mountain Home Air Force Base

Shouldn't there be any reference to the 2004 incident at Mountain Home Air Force Base? Also, the two images in the history section do seem to have the correct text. --rxnd ( t | € | c ) 16:29, 18 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

List Of Fatalities Not Complete

The list of fatalities is not complete. Captain Nick Hauwk (I'm not sure of the spelling) was killed when his plane stalled during a low speed pass in the 1981 season at a air show. My brother was one of the pilots killed during the 82 crash. I would edit the main page but I don't remember the details.Dick Mays

Robert Fitzgerald link

Link to Major Robert Fitzgerald in fatalities section pointed to evidently wrong person. I removed the link, while as far as I can see, we have no article on the correct man. I hope it was the right thing to do. 83.29.244.78 13:04, 25 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Nonsense phrase under "Accidents"?

The Accidents section contains the following sentence.

On 1958-10-09 14 men aboard the Thunderbirds support C-123 perished in a crash 50 miles NW of Boise, Idaho while transiting an airshow.

The phrase "while transiting an airshow" implies that they were passing through the airspace of an airshow at the time of the accident. I suspect that is not correct. Can someone confirm whether this accident occurred while enroute to an airshow, enroute from an airshow, or enroute between airshows? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Tedd (talk • contribs) 22:41, 18 March 2007 (UTC).[reply]

Fixed it. Joe Hepperle (talk) 18:23, 8 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

September 1981 Crash Info Incorrect Maybe

I think the description of the September 8, 1981 crash may be incorrect. I seem to recall that he did eject, but was too low and was killed falling to the breakwall at Burke airport in Cleveland. I have no reference, and 26 year-old memories may be faulty. 68.99.53.199 03:56, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

132.58.234.102

This user seems to be adding blatant advertisment. The user is registered from the base used by the Thunderbirds - so I reckon someone there is promoting them through this article. Can someone else look at this? --Richardwhiuk (talk) 23:26, 3 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't see what it was that you were referring to in the article but the Thunderbirds aren't really a business so how could they be advertising? —ASPENSTI—TALK—CONTRIBUTIONS 21:18, 15 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Aspensti, they are effectively part of the recruiting arm of the Air Force, so they do make advertising to "sell" their "product": recruiting people. That said, I'm not seeing where there's a problem either, but this comment was made 3.5 years ago; it's likely already been fixed. Buffs (talk) 02:45, 16 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Citations Needed

wow talk about a need of references. No citations in history or in incidents, only 2 in-line citations. Please consider adding the citations needed banner to head of article.--Sparkygravity (talk) 16:09, 15 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Encyclopedia or titillating newspaper?

Just like hearing vulgarities in church, I was shocked and horrified to read the following in this Wikipedia article:

"To the shock and horror of the onlookers, Stricklands aircraft failed to complete the maneuver and instead smashed into the ground less than 500 yards from spectators. "It was really quiet," remembers M D, who saw the crash first hand. "Nobody said a word until we saw the pilot stand up. Everyone shouted 'he got out! he got out!' he got out at the last second."

This is just one of several sections that read like a sensationalized newspaper article. The section should only say, "Strickland's aircraft failed to complete the maneuver and instead smashed into the ground less than 500 yards from spectators."

And who is M D? A Wikipedia editor looking for his 15 minutes of fame by listing himself as a "shocked onlooker" with a comment to make? Even if not, "M D's" comments have no place here. They add absolutely nothing to the article.

After all, Joe Hepperle, who saw the crash, said, "The fireball was big! It was real big!" and you don't have that "quote" in here.

N.B Joe Hepperle did not see the crash and was nowhere near at the time. The above claim about Joe Hepperle and his comments on the crash are meant as a demonstration analogy to (analogously demonstrate ?) why "...shock and horror of the onlookers..." and "M D" and his alleged comments have no place in this Wikipedia article.

Since most of this article is not referenced, there is no way to view the original citations to determine a correct way to rewrite this section. Joe Hepperle (talk) 16:16, 8 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A lot less time and effort, and a lot more civility, could have been accomplished just by editing the article.--Reedmalloy (talk) 05:17, 12 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Show schedule needed?

Is the show schedule needed? I think that there should maybe be a link to the show schedule. Any thoughts? 66.239.250.209 (talk) 20:22, 10 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Accidents Section NPOV

Accidents section

The section on accidents emphasizes that there have only been two fatalities at air shows. But the list below it shows three. Then the list below that shows the death of one pilot, which was already mentioned in both the airshows list, and the text above that. -Freekee (talk) 20:23, 12 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Missing Crash

The article doesn't mention the March 18, 1973 F-4 Phantom crash at Holloman AFB, NM. Capt. Mike "Rip" Blaisdell safely ejected. I saw it happen, but don't know how to reference it to Wikipedia standards. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.191.150.241 (talk) 06:05, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

NPOV Tagg

This section especially compared to similar section on Blue Angels article appear to need NPOV check as the tone appears to attempt to mitigate instead of just document.0pen$0urce (talk) 21:42, 13 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

File:USAF Thunderbird Diamond Formation.jpg Nominated for Deletion

An image used in this article, File:USAF Thunderbird Diamond Formation.jpg, has been nominated for deletion at Wikimedia Commons in the following category: Media without a source as of 27 September 2011

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Christopher R. Stricklin -- Pilot for 2003 Split-S Crash -- CO of 49 FTS

Here is a link to the bio for Lieutenant Colonel Christopher R. Stricklin, who as a Captain piloted the F-16 which crashed on September 14, 2003. On 18 June 2010 he became the commander of the 49th Fighter Training Squadron. There is currently probably too little information about the crash in this article to merit an indication that it did not bring his career to an end, though it makes for a nice coda. -- 110.49.251.173 (talk) 14:48, 4 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]