Too many comments are trying to overanalyze, or just show off their insightful cynicism.

We do airshows because they are cool. Lots of us love airplanes. Humans do all kinds of activities for entertainment that are not strictly justifiable returns on investment. I hope we never get that boring, though every year we do seem to go that direction.

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operatingthetan an hour ago | parent | next [-]

No. They are for recruitment and showing other nations what is on hand in case they want to mess with them.

>insightful cynicism.

So in response you select the most naive take?

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kube-system 20 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Even the airshows that the military flies at are often primarily civilian shows. The military clearly has recruiting and power demonstration goals but airshows in general exist outside of those goals. The majority of the aviators at these shows are civilian hobbyists.

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justin66 38 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They work for recruitment because... they're cool.

	▲	nearlyepic 21 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Sure, but the purpose is recruitment. They wouldn't do them if they didn't get anything out of them, and what they get out of them is PR and boosts to recruitment efforts.

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BoorishBears 34 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I don't understand this comment. If you want to be the minimally charitable + maximally accurate commenter your tone suggests, then you're also wrong.

It's a superset of the reasons you poorly articulated, and those reasons would include the fact it's cool. Cool things can help both recruitment and morale, and the US military seems to recognize that: https://armedforcessports.defense.gov/Sports/Esports/

If this is just meant to be another comment on the situation which comes with an implicit grain of salt, then the browbeating doesn't make sense.

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operatingthetan 32 minutes ago | parent [-]

Bizarre response. Don't make things up or project based on your perception of tone. Your style of criticism and declaring the 'truth' is intensely off-putting.

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BoorishBears 19 minutes ago | parent [-]

It's not (just) my perception, most socially aware people would interpret the sign off:

> So in response you select the most naive take?

As well as your reply to me now, as having an unduly negative tone... at least, given the lack of substance or importance.

(Ironically, I have less of hang up on meaningful arguments delivered with edge than most people.)

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operatingthetan 16 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Please go away.

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bigyabai 15 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

They're being rude, but right. Burying your head in the sand is not an intellectually gratifying response to barbazoo's comment, and the actual meat of their answer ("because they're cool") is obviously incorrect.

Both are unprofessional comments, but only the original was dishonest. The "too many comments" shtick is a thought terminating cliche that shouldn't be encouraged on HN.

	▲	BoorishBears 2 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Again, they're not even right if we're going maximum correctness here... Maximally correct answer is "there are many reasons with complex interplay", and those reasons do include the fact it's cool! Being cool has interplay with morale, recruitment, and even their ham-fisted attempt at referencing geopolitics. They'd be more right if they said in addition*, but they just straight up said "No." (Also where did you read a too many comments shtick?)

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lelandbatey 39 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Sure that's why the bean counters wrote the checks for them, but that's not the reason people attend. People attend because they are a spectacle.

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bigyabai an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's worth questioning what the costs are, though. I love military aviation more than the average Joe, and seeing these jets pushed to their limits is pretty gratifying. But this isn't a football/soccer pasttime, the E/A-18 is an expensive F/A-18 block and the aviators are an asset of national security that take decades of experience and millions of taxpayer dollars to train. The losses sustained by the Blue Angels alone is stomach-churning, and they're widely known as one of the most professional groups around: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Angels#Team_accidents_and...

The net benefit is marketing, and little else. As much as I enjoy watching airshow jet maneuvers, I have to acknowledge that the USSR only sent their Sukhoi pilots on-tour as a publicity stunt to increase their exports. Same goes for the US, France and China.

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yepyoukno 19 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

I grew up in a time a whole lot more was spent on air shows.

They do it because it’s awesome and it is one of the few opportunities they get to show off their gear to the public!