JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Over 200,000 spectators packed Naval Air Station Jacksonville to witness aviation history Saturday. For the first time in Jacksonville, both the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds and the U.S. Navy Blue Angels flew, sending roaring engines and excitement through the skies. <\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s beach event with the Blue Angels was unfortunately canceled due to a federal government shutdown and subsequent budget strains. <\/p>\n
This year was a different story, as hundreds of thousands of people came out for the show. The base announced it had reached full capacity<\/a> just after 1 p.m.<\/p>\n >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Organizers were fully prepared for the massive influx of fans eager to catch a glimpse of the elite flight demonstration teams, encouraging attendees to arrive early and review parking maps<\/a>.<\/p>\n For many dedicated spectators, the show required an exceptionally early wake-up call. <\/p>\n \u201cI got up at 3:30, got ourselves ready,\u201d said Michelle Curtis, who was among the thousands waking up before dawn to secure a prime viewing spot on the tarmac. <\/p>\n Many were not bothered by the weather, as they said this was better than a hot sunny day. <\/p>\n \u201cGetting to hear the roar of the engine is just an awesome feeling,\u201d shared spectator Zachary Phipps. <\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n Shaina Spencer, another attendee, noted the uniqueness of the event before the jets took off. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a rare experience for us to see both of the two come together. I can\u2019t wait to see some barrel rolls. I\u2019m excited to see how high they go and how close and low they fly.\u201d <\/p>\n Another day of the event is scheduled for Sunday. <\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Over 200,000 spectators packed Naval Air Station Jacksonville to witness aviation history Saturday. For the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[16646,60249,10580,639,969,116,118,117,6489,634,169202,47735,169201,169203,47738],"class_list":["post-431043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-air_force_thunderbirds","tag-angels","tag-blue_angels","tag-duval_county","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jessica_salinas","tag-local","tag-michelle_curtis","tag-nas","tag-naval_station_jacksonville","tag-navy_blue_angels","tag-thunderbirds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}