Blue Angels’ pilots Lt. Brandon Hempler and Lt. Dave Steppe made their entrance at Brunswick Executive Airport in grand, and loud, fashion on Thursday afternoon.
Both servicemen are members of the elite Navy air demonstration squadron and arrived in a blue and gold-lettered F/A-18D Hornet fighter jet at nearly 350 miles per hour.
Their visit was advance work in preparation for the Blue Angels return to Brunswick as part of the Great State of Maine Air Show at the airport. The two-day event will be held on Aug. 26-27, 2017.
It will be the Blue Angels only New England appearance, with the Brunswick event expected to draw upward of 50,000 people. The Blue Angels last performed in Brunswick in 2015.
Hempler, 32, of Wamego, Kansas, is Blue Angel #7. Steppe, 31, of Birmingham, Alabama, is Blue Angel #8.
On Thursday, both men stood in front of the jet during the press conference. The two-seater plane, one seat in front of the other, stands nearly 10 feet off the ground.
Seeing the movie “Top Gun” when they were young boys and knowing of the Blue Angels inspired Hempler and Steppe to pursue their aviation goals.
“If kids are anything like I was when I was a kid, I pretty much worshiped the ground the Blue Angels walked on,” Hempler said.
Steppe agreed, saying the visual feedback from a young audience is equally inspiring.
“It’s great to see their smiling faces,” Steppe said.
Visitors of all ages are expected to come to the Maine air show next summer, including Brunswick resident T.K. Dudley. He remembers the day he saw his first Blue Angels show: Aug. 4, 1974. Seeing the swift Hornet planes decorate the sky with their carefully timed and synchronized maneuvers sparked an interest in the Blue Angels for him at a young age.
For Hempler and Steppe, the hours that will go into preparing and practicing for the air show is all in a day’s work.
“I don’t really call it work,” Steppe said. “I go to work with my best friends every day.”
For more information and tickets, go online to greatstateofmaineairshow.us.
lconnell@timesrecord.com
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