Why fighter jets are flying over New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania today
Thunderbirds F-16s earlier this month in Colorado. (Airman 1st Class Nilsa E. Garcia / US Air Force/)If you live in the New York City or Philadelphia area, you might see—or hear—fighter jets tearing through the sky today. The aircraft are F-16s and F/A-18s, flown by the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels, the Air Force and Navy aerial demonstrations teams. The purpose of the flights is a chance “to salute those working on the frontline of the COVID-19 response,” the Blue Angels’ commander Brian Kesselring said in a statement. The supersonic-capable F-16s are known casually as “vipers,” and the Thunderbirds aircraft are painted red, white, and blue. Vipers are a classic dogfighter that have been flying since the late 1970s—in fact, the first time one lifted off the ground, in 1974, was an accident. These agile swept-wing planes, and the pilots in them, can sustain some 9 Gs of force during sharp...