Engineering’s Thomas rockets aloft with Blue Angels

Ned Thomas, dean of the George R. Brown School of Engineering, gives a thumbs-up as he prepares to fly with the Blue Angels.

Thomas in pre-flight mode before this week's demonstration flight on one of the Blue Angels' F/A-18 Hornets.

It was like “Thunder Mountain times 1,000.” That was Ned Thomas’s description of flying with a member of the Blue Angels this week at Houston’s Ellington Field, where the Navy flight demonstration team is preparing for this weekend’s annual Wings Over Houston Air Show. Thomas, the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of Rice’s George R. Brown School of Engineering, was one of a select few invited to ride a Boeing F/A-18 Hornet Oct. 24 in the run-up to this week’s performances.

Thomas boasted of experiencing 6.8 times the force of gravity “and didn’t black out,” he said. The flight was “fast — really, really fast.”