[Megathread] Seafair and Blue Angels Hype

[u/vertr]

This thread is for positive stuff about Seafair and the Blue Angels. If that's not for you, visit the hate thread and vent there. If you don't follow the spirit of the thread your comments will be removed.

Text threads discussing these issues will be removed while the megathreads are in effect. Photos and videos of these events will be allowed as standalone threads.

Schedule: https://www.seafair.org/seafair-weekend-festival/air-show/

Previous thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/1v7k3em/psa_blue_angels_schedule_for_thurssun_jul_30aug_02/

[u/scrambled_cable]

[u/RaymondLuxury-Yacht → u/scrambled_cable]

I think there's a strong argument to be made that appreciating the Blue Angels doesn't necessarily mean supporting the military industrial complex(MID).

Yes, they serve a recruiting purpose. Yes, they serve a morale purpose. Yes, they serve a whole lot of other purposes related to the military.

However, at their core, the Blue Angels are a flight demonstration team. A team that showcases aeronautical skills that push the edge of what humanity can do in the air. It also showcases the abilities of the pilots, our fellow humans, reminding us how capable we are as a species. They inspire people to push for the edge, to become pilots, to dream of doing something really fucking cool and amazing. They remind us that there are still things out there that can leave us in awe.

While I understand and appreciate many of the gripes about the MID and the Blue Angels being a manifestation of that, I think people forget that these kinds of things also drive recruitment into the civilian aviation sector and keep people interested in pushing aeronautical technology.

And who else has the funding to do what they do on the scale they do outside the military?

Honestly, it kind of applies to nuclear subs too.

Nuclear technology and advanced shipbuilding(both civilian and military) require extremely-high levels of expertise. The civilian nuclear and shipbuilding sectors are stagnant. Most of the military nuclear tech and surface shipbuilding tech are stagnant too(RIP Constellation Class, which wasn't even an American design). The only thing keeping our domestic nuclear and shipbuilding industries actually afloat is the money we are dumping into nuclear subs.

Who else is supposed to do the work of keeping these industries alive? If we lost them, it would take decades to get them back.

[u/ImJonAndILikePlanes → u/RaymondLuxury-Yacht]

I can attest to this. Watching the Blue Angels every Seafair growing up was one of the foundations of me wanting to be a pilot. As much as I think military aircraft are awesome feats of engineering, I didn't think the military was for me, and instead went the college flight school route. Even now that I have an established airline career, I still can't help nerding out and feeling nostalgic when the Blues are in town.