The Navy's Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squad-ron's famed blue and gold F/A-18 Hornets took to the skies over Kane'ohe Bay yesterday with a roar that exhilarated tens of thousands of spectators at Marine Corps Base Hawai'i.

Four pilots flew their twin-engine, single-seat tactical jets while executing stunning aileron rolls in classic Blue Angels diamond formation. The two solo pilots performed breathtaking double tuckover rolls and knife-edge passes — slicing past one another in opposite directions by inches and moving more than 300 mph.

As with the Air Force Thunderbirds air show last month, the Blue Angels were limited to the precision team's low-flying routine because of cloud cover that rolled in during the afternoon.

However, all watching seemed stunned and amazed by what was happening above, especially since the whole nonstop Blue Angels extravaganza could be seen from virtually anywhere on the base.

"This is fabulous," said Jeffrey Koch of Las Vegas, who watched the action with his wife, Ashley, and son Zach, 3 — a future pilot who was making hand-held air passes with his plastic Blue Angels F/A-18 Hornet replica. Meanwhile, Zach's 6-month-old brother Eli proved to be a tough audience — snoozing soundly in his stroller even as the low-flying jets screamed overhead.

Even before the Blue Angels went airborne, while the skies were still blue and sunny, the crowd was treated to an endless array of skyward action. Army Golden Knights and the Navy Leap Frogs, trailed by plumes of colored smoke, exhibited precision parachute jumps that culminated in pinpoint landings on the airfield.

At one point the ground suddenly shook from a thunderous explosion that engulfed an 800-foot section of the airfield in a wall of flames and smoke that shot more than 200 feet high. It was all designed to showcase the military's hardware capability with the kind of spectacular reality that was once reserved for high-tech Hollywood adventure film productions.

In between such displays, some of the country's top stunt pilots dazzled the crowd with loop-the-loops, vertical rolls, tailspins and end-over-end somersaults.

"This is an amazing air show," said Patty Wagstaff, a three-time U.S. National Aerobatic champion, moments before she put on the sort of aerial performance that earlier this year landed her in the International Aerospace Hall of Fame.

"There are some big shows on the Mainland, and they get a lot of talent there, but to get it over here — the logistics make it very, very hard."

Pete O'Hare, Blues on The Bay air show director, agreed, adding, "We had to have multiple C-5 transport aircraft load these professional performers and fly them in here. This is my 100th air show — so I've been around the block — and there is nothing that compares to bringing this show here to Hawai'i."

The show also included flyovers and demonstrations of the country's superior military aviation capabilities — such as the C-17 Globemaster III, the quietest, most agile cargo aircraft ever built that can land, taxi backward, and take off again in under two minutes on a mere 3,000 feet of runway space.

For those who needed to give their neck muscles a rest there was plenty to see and do on the tarmac — from a car show to carnival rides; a vintage World War II-era DC-3 to a leviathan Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, one of world's largest aircraft.

Senior Master Sgt. Derek Bryant, part of a three-person C-17 crew at the air show, told folks inspecting his aircraft that the C-17 has revolutionized the military's airlift force. Among other things, the cargo aircraft's ability to land on a dime allows it to fly to some 6,000 places in the world that no other cargo plane can go.

Outside Bryant's C-17, Julia Solomon of Waimanalo was one of dozens of spectators who found a comfortable vantage point to watch the Blue Angels beneath the plane's colossal wings — which stretch half the length of a football field.

"I'm enjoying the show here in the shade," said Solomon, who added that her grandson is a Marine stationed in Iraq.

As the Blue Angels roared overhead, Mapuana MacDonald, who was cradling a friend's 9-month-old son, found an advantage to the noise.

"He's about to fuss," she said, looking at the baby. "If you're going to cry, this is the time to do it. Let it all out."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.