# Gray Angels > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Gray_Angels > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Gray_Angels.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_Angels > Source revision: 1286132416 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|1940s US Navy air show team}} The US company [McDonnell Aircraft](/source/McDonnell_Aircraft) received a request in 1942 for a [jet](/source/Jet_aircraft) [fighter](/source/Fighter_aircraft) which could be operated from [U.S. Navy](/source/U.S._Navy) [aircraft carrier](/source/aircraft_carrier)s. The eventual result was the [FH-1 Phantom](/source/FH_Phantom), a twin-engined craft that was only moderately faster than the [best propeller fighters](/source/Fastest_propeller-driven_aircraft) of the time. The Navy ordered 100 planes (only 60 were actually built), and the first units were delivered in 1947. They were used to equip one Navy and two [United States Marine Corps](/source/United_States_Marine_Corps) squadrons. They were the first carrier-based pure jet fighters acquired and put into operational service by the Navy. The Marines used a few of their planes to form an aerial formation-flight demonstration team, dubbed ''The Flying Leathernecks'' (which was also the title of a 1951 film starring [John Wayne](/source/John_Wayne), concerned with Marine aviation activity in [World War II](/source/World_War_II)). Three flag officers in the Navy, Admiral Daniel V. Gallery and Rear Admirals Apollo Soucek and Edgar A. Cruise, checked themselves out in the Phantom and made fly-by appearances at the inauguration ceremony of [New York City](/source/New_York_City)'s [Idlewild Airport](/source/Idlewild_Airport) and the 1948 [Cleveland Air Race](/source/National_Air_Races)s. They referred to themselves as The '''Gray Angels''', a reference to the actual Navy flight-demonstration team known as the [Blue Angels](/source/Blue_Angels) (formed in 1945, the Blue Angels' official title was ''U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Team'', and they were first referred to as ''Lancers'', but within a few months the references were changed to ''Blue Angels''). The "Grays" flew in various [air show](/source/air_show)s during the summer of 1947, but the team was abruptly disbanded after their poorly timed arrival at a September air show in [Cleveland, Ohio](/source/Cleveland%2C_Ohio) nearly caused a head-on low-altitude collision with a large formation of other aircraft.Mills, 1991, p. 226. ==References== ===Notes=== {{Reflist}} ===Bibliography=== {{refbegin}} * Mills, Carl. ''Banshees in the Royal Canadian Navy''. Willowdale, Ontario, Canada: Banshee Publication, 1991. {{ISBN|0-9695200-0-X}}. *{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110514001132/http://www.vectorsite.net/avbansh.html The McDonnell FH-1 Phantom]}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20010602214620/http://www.history.navy.mil/avh-1910/APP30.PDF List of Early Naval Jet Pilots] *[http://www.4sims.com/toppilot/Cards/Blue_Angle.htm Blue Angels Trading Cards] {{refend}} Category:American aerobatic teams Category:United States naval aviation --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Gray Angels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_Angels) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_Angels?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.