In the history of big professional sports games few moments stand out as much as the National Anthem flyover. It’s a moment of patriotism, unity and pride that all can celebrate. Plus it is simply the coolest moment of the game – we think anyway. It’s the Super Bowl flyover.
Tonight’s Super Bowl flyover will crank it up a notch. It’s America’s 250th birthday, and so what better way to honor it at the biggest game of the year by doing it with both the Air Force and Navy together?
Super Bowl Flyover: 8 Aircraft will fly, call sign DRAGO
Eight aircraft will be participating. Call sign DRAGO. A B-1 bomber from Ellsworth, North Dakota will lead a formation of 7, joined by two F-15C Eagles from the 144th Fighter Wing (CA Guard), two Navy F-35C Lightning IIs from VFA-97 and two F/A-18 Super Hornets from VFA-1. Another B-1 will scream in from behind the formation, after the main flyover.
The Air Force will be live-streaming the flyover from their perch on the stadium roof. Be sure to tune in here.
We sat down for an interview with the Air Force about it a few days ago. When we asked one of the B-1 pilots (call sign TOP OFF) if they will hit the afterburners, he replied “god gave the B-1 four afterburning engines for good reason”.
In Friday’s rehearsal, the second B-1 came in full burners and set car alarms off for miles around the stadium. That answers THAT question!
A year of planning
The big flyover has been in planning for some time. It’s a nationwide effort, that will also require aerial refueling tankers for the B-1 bombers flying round-trip from North Dakota.
“The Air Force has been involved in the planning for about a year,” said Katie Spencer, sports outreach program manager for the Department of the Air Force out of the Pentagon. “When we were figuring out what we wanted the flyover to look like, we worked with Dept of War and thought a joint flyover would be really great to celebrate America 250, and so the Navy came in.”
It’s actually THE first Air Force-Navy joint flyover of a Super Bowl. An incredibly rare sight for the public and tax payers, as well as any adversaries watching this airpower flex with multiple units from different locations all hitting a specific time on target. Down to the second.
“We’re really excited to see how all of this planning has come together to make this formation something truly spectacular,” added Spencer.
Valuable training at no added cost to tax payers
It’s not just a flex on a world stage. The flyover is also valuable real-world training and doesn’t cost tax-payers a dime extra. It’s paid through already allocated training hours.
“Every year these squadrons get their bucket of flight of training hours, and they use them as they see fit to get their mission done,” says Spencer. “Because you have to be over a stadium at a certain point in time, you have to hit your time over target. There’s no better way to replicate that type of training than with a sports flyover. And when we’re talking about the Super Bowl, it’s high stakes, it’s high stress, and it very much replicates what these pilots feel during combat.”
“We’re all pretty excited, it’s a big honor to fly over the Super Bowl,” said Major “Top Off”, one of the B-1 pilots we spoke with. “We’re planning across multiple sister services, and we’re all at different dislocated locations, so that introduces some challenges in terms of not all being in the same room. It’s excellent training for us because that’s kind of how we fight too, not all from the same base.”
We’re getting some night air refueling too, which is good practice for us and a pretty important currency that we track for all of our crews,” adds “Top Off”. “Getting the tankers supporting us in the background is huge.”
Timing the Super Bowl flyover to the exact second
“It’s pretty busy airspace here in San Francisco, so we can’t just go rolling in with no coordination with FAA and ATC. We also make sure that, as all of these jets come from different locations we’re rejoining in the hold appropriately and safely and then getting a nice tight formation ready to go at the appropriate azimuth over the stadium.”
Being the lead, the B-1 bomber will have primary responsibility to nail the timing of the flyover, with eyeballs and support from the ground.
“We’ll be tuned in with the ground POC,” says Top Off. “We have timing for the anthem, and then the ground POC will be updating the crews based on whether we’re meeting certain time marks in the anthem. There’s somebody that sits in a booth as well that lets us know and keeps track of timing.”
Will the TV network show the Super Bowl flyover more than a second or 2?
In the past, the public has been unhappy with the air time given to Super Bowl flyovers. A noticeable percentage actually change the channel after the flyover is done. Some years however the networks actually show a considerable amount of the flyover, tracking the formation as they come and go.
Neither the NFL or networks guarantee any amount of air time for the Super Bowl flyover, however the DOD does communicate and advocate as much as possible for the flyovers to be shown justice.
“We can’t get guaranteed air time, but we have had lots of conversations with the producers and directors, and they are as enthusiastic about the flyover as we are,” says Spencer. “So we are hopeful that we’re gonna get as much air time as possible. Of course understanding that the flyover is not the main objective of the national anthem. NBC has other requirements, the artists, the players, the flag, the fans, we are are just one piece of a larger operation.”
What message will the Super Bowl flyover send to the American public and the world?
“Flyover are a great display of air power and our military capability, and the fact that we are doing this with Navy and Air Forces really shows our joint interoperability and the fact that these aircraft – regardless of service – can be anywhere, any time in the world to answer the nation’s call,” says Spencer. “We hope this flyover gives the American public a sense of pride and patriotism, and a relief knowing that these warfighters are here to protect and serve.”
“At one of the most-watched events in the world, the flyover at Super Bowl LX is a visible reminder that America’s military remains united, ready, and dominant — 250 years strong.”
– Our sincere thanks to Katie Spencer and TOP OFF for giving us some time to chat this week. We wish all our crews good luck today. If you capture photos or videos of the flyover, pls message us we would love to share, and follow our FACEBOOK PAGE where we post every day!
