In 1961, the team was compelled to discontinue the vertical bank maneuver due to an FAA regulation prohibiting aerobatics that pointed the nose of the aircraft toward the crowd. For a time, if the show’s sponsor permitted it, the pilots would create a sonic boom this ended when the FAA banned supersonic flight over the continental United States.

An emphasis was placed on low, screaming flyovers and demonstrations of takeoff performance. This switch was accompanied by a relocation of their headquarters to Nellis AFB, Nevada. The Thunderbirds entered the supersonic era with the the F-100C Super Sabre in 1956.

Thunderbirds head home to the USA (4:23-5:50). The planes do a cross-over above the crowd, low to the ground. A crowd of people watch the planes pass by. People look up, including a fireman, who marvel at the F-100s (3:09-4:22). The man continues to make his sand castle. People on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil thrill to the sights of the Thunderbirds flying by. The team walks in formation, the officer on the far right is team leader and Air Force Ace, Col. The pilots meet with foreign dignitaries who may include Chile’s Augusto Pinochet and Paraguay’s Alfredo Stroessner, Guatemala’s General José Miguel Ramón Ydígoras Fuente. One of the men holds a gift, a model of the team’s support aircraft. Aeropuerto Internacional Presidente Stroessner in Luque, Paraguay (1:21). Crew chief of the Thunderbird planes shakes hands (:06-1:43). Spectators watch in awe as the planes fly by. This is circa March 1961 to June 1963 when the Thunderbirds were flying the F-100 Super Sabre and led by Col. Air Force Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Thunderbirds, making a tour of Latin America including Guatemala, Chile, Paraguay and Brazil. This color promotional film is about the U.S.

Us air force thunderbirds planes