NASA-affiliated aircraft, including F-5 Tiger IIs jets, will kick off roughly seven hours of flyovers above Washington, D.C., to mark the Fourth of July. Today, NASA also officially unveiled an F-15D Eagle and an F/A-18B Hornet jet wearing new star-spangled paint schemes as part of larger celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. The aerial showcase over the nation’s capital tomorrow will also see wave after wave of fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters from across the U.S. military, as well as foreign air forces. It is set to be an unprecedented aerial review, unlike anything seen in recent decades.
A full flyover schedule is available on the website of the Freedom 250 organization, the primary organizer of various 250th anniversary celebrations. A more truncated flyover program has already come and gone today. The full aerial review is set to start tomorrow at 1:14 PM ET with a “NASA F-5 Flyover,” followed immediately by a “NASA Fleet Review.”
The NASA “Freedom 250” F-5 team consists of four privately owned aircraft, including one that belongs to its current administrator, Jared Isaacman. They have already been taking part in various airshows and other events since April. Three of the F-5s, wearing their special 250th anniversary schemes, touched down at Andrews Air Force Base just outside of Washington, D.C., on June 30.
As noted, NASA has also now unveiled the F-15D and F/A-18B with their special 250th anniversary liveries, as seen at the top of this story and below. Those jets could be part of the larger NASA Fleet Review.
Spotters in Spokane, Washington, had first caught sight of these jets yesterday. Based on the assignment of its civilian N-number registration code in May of this year, the F-15D appears to be one of two ex-Oregon Air National Guard jets that NASA acquired in January.
What other NASA aircraft might make an appearance is unclear. Last week, NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, did share pictures of T-38, WB-57F, and Gulfstream V aircraft with Freedom 250 emblems painted on their fuselages, but it is unknown whether they will be part of the Fourth of July event.
NASA’s fleets do include a broad selection of other aircraft, including other Gulfstream business jet models and a variant of the U-2 spy plane called the ER-2. Earlier this year, NASA also took delivery of a new Boeing 777. Whether any of its experimental X-planes, such as the highly unusual-looking X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology test aircraft that may help pave the way for a new era of commercial supersonic flight, might join the flyovers remains to be seen.
U.S. Coast Guard helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft will follow the NASA flyovers, per the Freedom 250 website, but no specific aircraft types are mentioned. Today, the Coast Guard operates a mix of MH-65 Dolphin and MH-60T helicopters, as well as HC-130J, C-27J, HC-144, C-37, and now C-39 fixed-wing aircraft. C-39 is the designation given to new Gulfstream 700 VIP jets, the first of which was delivered in January. The Coast Guard is in the process of acquiring a second one of these aircraft, which will supplement, if not eventually supplant, its C-37s, which are based on older Gulfstream types, as you can read more about here.
The U.S. Army’s Golden Knights and the U.S. Navy’s Leap Frogs, both of which are parachute demonstration teams, are set to follow the Coast Guard portion of the aerial review. Whether they will jump from different aircraft or the same one, and what type of aircraft will be utilized, are unknown. The Army has aircraft dedicated to supporting the Golden Knights, including Dash-8-based C-147As and UV-18C Twin Otters.
2026 B-Roll Package
Leap Frogs 2021
The parachute demonstrations are to be followed by a review of Army helicopters, which could include a mixture of AH-64 Apache, UH-60 Black Hawk, CH-47 Chinook, and UH-72 Lakota types. Special Operations MH-60Ms, MH-47Gs, and AH/MH-6 Little Birds from the famed 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, the “Nightstalkers,” might also take part. The Army also has several VH-60 Black Hawks specially configured for VIP transport missions, known as “gold tops” because of their distinctive black-and-gold paint jobs, based in the broader Washington, D.C. area, that could be included in the flovers.
Waves of U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy aircraft – in that order – will come after the Army helicopters pass by.
The Air Force’s three waves are broken down into “heavies,” aircraft from Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), and fighters. We know from the schedule that a “Tri-Bomber Formation” made up of a B-2, B-1, and B-52 will come later in the day, but the “heavies” mentioned here also sound likely to include a mix of cargo aircraft and aerial refueling tankers. Executive transport types might also make an appearance at this point in the festivities. The new VC-25B “Bridge” aircraft, which made its maiden flight in the Air Force One role this week in taking President Donald Trump on a trip to North Dakota, is explicitly set to be part of the larger aerial review.
The main components of AFSOC’s fleets today are AC-130J Ghostrider gunships, MC-130J Commando II special operations tanker transports, CV-22 Osprey tiltrotors, and new OA-1K Skyraider II light attack planes. We may well see examples of all of the Air Force’s current tactical jet fleets – F-22 Raptors, F-35A Joint Strike Fighters, F-15E Strike Eagles, F-15EX Eagle IIs, F-16C/D Vipers, and A-10 Warthogs – in the “fighter” wave.
An “Executive Rotary Wing Airlift” flyover will come in between the Air Force and Marine Corps waves. The Marines are the most prominent operators of aircraft in this category, being responsible for the VH-92, VH-60, and VH-3 presidential helicopters, also commonly known as Marine Ones, as well as a fleet of MV-22 Ospreys used for executive airlift missions. The Army’s aforementioned “gold top” Black Hawks, as well as the Air Force’s UH-1N Twin Hueys based at Andrews Air Force Base, are in this “executive” category, as well.
The waves of other Marine and then Navy rotary wing and fixed-wing aircraft will follow. As with the Air Force waves, it seems likely that we will see a broad swath of types that these services currently fly. On the fixed wing side, this could include F-35B and C Joint Strike Fighters, F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers, F/A-18C/D Legacy Hornets, and KC-130J Hercules tanker-transports. On the rotary-wing front, there are MV-22 and CMV-22 Osprey tiltrotors, as well as its AH-1Z Viper, UH-1Y Venom, CH-53E Super Stallion, CH-53K King Stallion, and MH-60R/S Seahawk helicopters.
It should be noted here that there are heavy restrictions on how and when uncrewed aircraft, even ones belonging to the U.S. military, can fly within the U.S. national airspace. This makes it very unlikely that drones from any of the services will be part of the aerial procession.
Flights by the Navy’s Blue Angels and its separate Super Hornet demonstration team, as well as the Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey demonstration team, are next in the program. The Blue Angels have various signature maneuvers, some of which they might be able to incorporate into their flyover.
Blue Angels Air Show 2026
Per the Freedom 250 website, the Navy and Marine Corps demonstration teams will be followed by another review of Air Force fighters, then the Tri-Bomber formation mentioned before. The Navy’s F-35C demonstration team will go next, and then the Air Force’s Thunderbirds.
Like the Blue Angels, the Thunderbirds have several signature maneuvers, and a “Delta Break” (more commonly referred to as a “Delta Burst”) is explicitly on the schedule. This entails the Thunderbirds’ F-16s flying in a delta formation before breaking outward, giving the appearance of a starburst in the sky. Smoke trails from the jets during the maneuver, adding to the effect, as seen in the video below.
USAF Thunderbirds “Delta Burst”
An “Air Force One Flyover” is sandwiched between the Thunderbirds’ initial flyby and the Delta Burst per the schedule on the Freedom 250 website. Whether this will feature anything besides the new VC-25B “Bridge” aircraft remains to be seen. That plane is set to lead a “HUGE 1” flyover, the composition of which is unclear.
A “U.S. Stealth Airpower Flyover,” which would include the B-2, F-22, and F-35, comes next in the program. The F-22 Raptor demonstration team has its own specific slot in the schedule, capped off with a flyby in afterburner. The sun will still be setting at 7:53 PM ET when it is set to occur, but the visual should still be impressive. There will also be a B-1 bomber flyover with the afterburners at 8:07 PM ET.
The entire aerial review program ends with another “HUGE 1” flyover, a “Twilight Jump” by the Golden Knights, and then finally a “Night Pass” by the B-1 in afterburner at 10:36 PM ET, by which time the sun will have fully set for the day. A B-1 made a similar flight over Washington, D.C., as part of the UFC America 250 event at the White House back on June 14.
There has been and continues to be much speculation about potential surprise appearances during the hours-long procession of U.S. military aircraft. The Air Force insists that the new B-21 Raider will not make an appearance. We also asked about whether a drone commonly and unofficially known as the “RQ-180,” or any of the demonstrators used in the Next Generation Air Domain (NGAD) program that birthed the F-47 sixth-generation fighter, might take part. We were flatly told no in response.
There is also set to be at least some degree of participation by foreign air forces, none of which is explicitly mentioned in the schedule on the Freedom 250 website.
“The national aerobatic display team of the United Arab Emirates, ‘Al Fursan,’ has arrived in the United States of America to take part in the celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the independence of the United States of America,” the UAE’s Ministry of Defense notably wrote in an official post on X this morning, per a machine translation of the original Arabic. “The team will join the official air show on July 4th, flying side by side with the Blue Angels team and squadrons of the U.S. Air Force, in an extraordinary scene that embodies the depth of bilateral relations between the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America, while reflecting the shared values and enduring partnership that unite the two nations.”
This is especially notable given that the Al Fursan team currently flies Chinese Hongdu L-15 jet trainers, as seen in the video below. This looks to be the debut appearance of any Chinese-made military aircraft in the United States.
The French Patrouille de France aerobatic team, which flies Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jets, has already flown over Washington, D.C., and New York City in the past two weeks as part of larger celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. The French have dubbed this the “Liberté 250” tour, which they say also celebrates their historic relationship with the United States since its founding.
As mentioned, tomorrow’s flyovers look set to be completely unlike anything seen in years. It will be a far larger gathering of aircraft than what was present at the parade marking the 250th Birthday of the U.S. Army last year. It will dwarf even what was put together to mark the Centennial of Naval Aviation in 2011.
Just from what’s on the public schedule, Washington, D.C., is set to see an unprecedented aerial extravaganza to mark this year’s Fourth of July.
Special thanks to Tom Riley for sharing his picture of the NASA F/A-18B and F-15D in Spokane with us.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com