The stunning maneuvers flown by US Air Force demo pilots showcase dogfighting skills

Air Force Thunderbird pilots perform daring maneuvers that stem from real-world combat training.

From a spectator’s view, airshows are all about spectacle — roaring high-speed passes, compact formation flying, and daring aerial aerobatics.

But for Air Force demonstration pilots, these techniques aren’t just crowd-pleasers. They are precise maneuvers derived from real-world combat training — practical fighting skills that could mean the difference between life and death on the battlefield.

While a demo pilot’s primary mission is to captivate airshow audiences, they also offer the spectators a glimpse into what their military aircraft are capable of in actual combat scenarios.

Air Force Maj. Tyler “Slasher” Clark, a demo pilot on the Air Force’s Thunderbird Demonstration squadron, transitioned to the F-16 Fighting Falcon from his work as an F-15C evaluator and instructor pilot while on active duty.

As a demo pilot, the aim is still “the constant pursuit of perfection, max-performing a military aircraft, flying on the edge of the envelope, learning not only where it can go but where also you can go,” Clark told B-17 in an interview ahead of the Pacific Airshow in Huntington Beach, California. “In that other environment, it applies to the tactical arena to protect our nation’s interests.”

F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft with the US Air Force Thunderbirds Air Demonstration Squadron fly in close formation.

The Thunderbirds showcase fighter aviation at the controls of the Lockheed Martin F-16, a fourth-generation fighter capable of air-to-surface strikes for air support and air-defense suppression and air-to-air combat with enemy aircraft.

As the world’s most popular fighter jet, the F-16 is used around the world, Ukraine being the jet’s newest user. Although the jet has been flying for 50 years, it has been consistently upgraded, allowing it to continue to serve in important roles, including homeland defense missions and combat in the global war on terrorism.

During Thunderbird demo flights, eight pilots — six formation pilots and two solo pilots — put the multirole fighter’s capabilities on display through a series of tight formations and shocking maneuvers.

Air Force Maj. Jeffrey “Simmer” Downie, a solo pilot on the Thunderbirds, logged more than 1,600 flight hours, including nearly 400 combat hours serving in Afghanistan during Operations Freedom Sentinel and Resolute Support.

Downie said that the display team exhibits dogfighting skills — close-range air-to-air combat skills — “to people that wouldn’t normally get to see the military and experience that.”

“We get to demonstrate a little piece of what we do with these jets,” Downie said. “So supersonic speeds, as we approach those during our sneak passes that scare everybody, they get a sense of what it’s like to chase down the enemy, but there’s also slow speed-handling for when you’re fighting another aircraft.”

“We get to demonstrate that to people to see the different regimes of flight and really just what these aircraft are capable of,” he said.

A cloud of vapor trails behind an F-16 Fighting Falcon as the pilot performs the High Alpha Pass maneuver. 

One such maneuver, the High Alpha Pass, involves fighter jets approaching spectators at a steep angle, hitting speeds of about 130 mph — which Downie said is “extremely” slow for a jet — before pulling up, taking a sharp 90-degree roll, and speeding up to 280 mph to clear the crowd below.

The stunt demonstrates the fighter’s ability to maintain control at high angles of attack and low speeds, which offers a tactical advantage in combat when a pilot has to quickly change direction or speed to avoid enemy fire.

Air Force Maj. Samuel “RaZZ” Larson, the commander of the F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team, told B-17 all of the maneuvers he performs during airshows are “just basic derivations from what we do really in dogfighting” and highlight the specific capabilities of the Raptor.

“It’s the only fighter in the US arsenal that has thrust vectoring, and it’s the most maneuverable fighter in the world,” Larson said of the fifth-generation F-22 Raptor, a Lockheed Martin-manufactured stealth air superiority fighter. “We try to showcase what the F-22 can do that other fighters cannot do, and some of the moves that we use in basic fighter maneuvers or dogfighting, we showcase in the demo.”

The F-22 has conducted strikes in Middle East conflicts, and it has long served as a supersonic interceptor, regularly countering Russian aircraft near Alaska as part of operations with North American Aerospace Defense Command. Its first air-to-air kill, however, was against a Chinese spy balloon over the continental US.

The F-22 Raptor scored its first air-to-air kill in 2023. 

Air Force Capt. Nicholas “Laz” Le Tourneau, a safety observer on the F-22 demo team, explained that while there are some differences between combat and performance flying, “nothing that we are doing here is outside of the purview of an F-22 pilot who is straight out of the combat Air Forces.”

“A lot of these maneuvers are actually being performed on a day-to-day basis up in the airspace when we’re executing our missions,” Le Tourneau told B-17, adding that “it’s really a blessing that Raz gets to take that down to the show and allow the crowd to experience that firsthand.”

Though the tenure of fighter pilots on demo teams only lasts a handful of years, Clark, the first Air National Guard pilot to join the Thunderbirds, said the pilots, maintainers, and operations crew foster a family-like dynamic.

The Thunderbirds have six formation pilots who fly in close proximity, as well as two solo pilots.

“There were a lot of parallels and similarities that I also saw in the Air National Guard,” Clark said. “You get to know each other really well, and sometimes, with those dynamics, you can really build some tight camaraderie and build that trust and go on to do and achieve really amazing things.”

“That’s what attracted me to the Guard, and that’s also really what attracted me to the Thunderbirds,” he said.

And the similarities between combat and demonstration flying come even before pilots get into the cockpit.

“A lot of the stuff that you’ve seen in combat is kind of the same for the airshow in terms of your preparation for that moment and repeating and knowing your steps, your processes, and how everything’s going to work,” Downie said, “so when things do go crazy in front of a crowd of 700,000 people, you know how to stay calm, cool, and collected as you do on a mission.”