There has been an excellent fly on the wall documentary series on the Blue Angels and my observations are that the Blue Angels without a shadow of a doubt fly extremely close to each other and far be it for me to argue over inches... My thoughts are perhaps a trifle blunt when I say 'Who cares?'
As a spectator we want to be entertained and I guess impressed, the stunningly close formation is okay but with fast moving aircraft you will get more gasps and screams as two fast jets do their cross overs when they are at least the width of the run way apart.
The kit of the Blue Angels is immaculate, the way they march out to their aircraft is precision itself. The way the commentator\pilot holds the microphone is precision personified. There whole performance is extremely well rehearsed and I take my hat off to them but as public display I would tactfully suggest they 'Could do better'
They are very good and please do not misunderstand what I am saying... I am perhaps suggesting that if there was less dead time at the cost of flying 3ft apart and at the same time perform more entertaining manoeuvres then would that not be a better trade off?
I just feel they are trying to impress each other and their piers as opposed to the paying public. We all know the pilots are possibly the best of the best... and I say that with all sincerity, they have NO need to impress anyone. They have already walked the walk and talked the talk.