JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 After hitting some turbulence in 2025 with the U.S. government shutdown, the Blue Angels are hoping for a smooth landing as they prepare for the NAS Jacksonville 2026 Air Show. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re so excited!\u201d said Lt. Cmdr. Lilly Montana, Blue Angel #8.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, two pilots from the Blue Angels flew into Jacksonville from Pensacola to talk about the upcoming air show. <\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThis year we\u2019ll be celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Blue Angels,\u201d said Lt. Cmdr. Montana. \u201cWe\u2019re actually founded here in Jacksonville, so this is a big homecoming for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Scheduled to perform this year, in addition to the Blue Angels, are the Thunderbirds!<\/p>\n We told you back in October when the Blues had to cancel<\/a> their performance in the Jacksonville Beach Sea and Sky Air Show due to the government shutdown. We asked the pilots what it was like for them not being able to perform.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n \u201cNot being able to perform didn\u2019t let us really achieve our mission to achieve that outreach,\u201d said Lt. Ronny Hafeza, Blue Angel #7. \u201cThe pilots were still training every single day, flying over the field to ensure the safety of the flight demonstrations. So, they still got the time in. They were still ready to go at a moment\u2019s notice in case the government were to reopen, but unfortunately, that didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite that, both pilots say the Blues couldn\u2019t be more excited for what\u2019s to come in 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cAs disappointed as we were to miss Jacksonville Beach, we hope to see the same fans out here at NAS Jacksonville for the air show,\u201d Lt. Cmdr. Montana, Blue Angel #8.<\/p>\n The NAS Jacksonville Air Show will take place October 17-18, 2026.<\/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 After hitting some turbulence in 2025 with the U.S. government shutdown, the Blue Angels are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13907,16974,47519,116,118,117,2583,635,47520,11273],"class_list":{"0":"post-87133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-blue-angels","9":"tag-exhibition","10":"tag-f-a-18-hornet","11":"tag-jacksonville","12":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","13":"tag-jacksonville-news","14":"tag-military","15":"tag-navy","16":"tag-precision","17":"tag-team"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87133","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=87133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}