A pilot with the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, stands in the cockpit of a fighter jet in Middletown, Pa., on Jan. 1, 2026. The Navy recently shifted its contract for the squadron's ceremonial flight suits from a longtime Pensacola, Fla., tailor to a Virginia-based contractor, ending a more than four-decade relationship. (Michael Mensah/U.S. Navy)
The Navy’s Blue Angels squadron is jettisoning the longtime Florida-based supplier of its distinctive blue-and-yellow ceremonial flight suits in favor of a contractor just outside the Beltway.
Earlier this year, the Navy awarded a five-year, $1.69 million contract to Dulles, Va.-based Aquila International, according to details in a posting on the federal government’s contracting website.
The new award marks the end of the acrobatic flight team’s 43-year history of procuring the uniforms from the Sewing Box, a tailoring shop in a strip mall minutes from the gates of the Blue Angels’ home base at Naval Air Station Pensacola.
The value of the deal with Aquila is more than double the nearly $700,000 paid out since 2008 to the Sewing Box, according to data on USAspending.gov.
Shop owner Candy Whitehurst told local ABC affiliate WEAR last week that she was devastated to lose the team’s business.
U.S. Navy Blue Angels members Lt. Ronny Hafeza, left, and Lt. Cmdr. Lilly Montana, right, walk on the flight line at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C., on Nov. 20, 2025. The Navy recently shifted its contract for the squadron’s ceremonial flight suits from a longtime Pensacola, Fla., tailor to a Virginia-based contractor, ending a more than four-decade relationship. (Matthew Williams/U.S. Marine Corps)
The Blue Angels had been the largest customer of the shop, which had produced, custom-fitted and tailored thousands of flight suits since the 1970s, Whitehurst said.
“I would’ve never, ever thought that my Blues would treat me like this,” Whitehurst told WEAR last week. “Not in a million years.”
The change now raises questions about ownership of the flight suit design.
In 2018, the Navy sought an $81,600 sole-source contract with the Sewing Box, stating that it had to go with the company, which had made the flight suits since 1976, because it owned the design and the Blue Angels could not send it to other vendors.
The Navy did not immediately respond Wednesday to questions about ownership of the flight suit design and the decision to move production from Pensacola to the Virginia-based company.
The 2018 justification also cited the Sewing Box’s proximity to the team, saying a local vendor was needed to accommodate the flyers’ demanding show schedule and occasional on-site measurements. That contract expired in 2022.
The shop was awarded additional sole-source contracts since, one for $99,250 in 2024 and another for $126,750 in 2025.
But the Aquila deal does not call for a redesign. It “encompasses the construction, alteration, and repair of highly specialized ceremonial flight suit uniforms,” according to contracting documents.
Aquila isn’t new to working with the Blue Angels. Since 2024, it has outfitted the squadron with flight gloves, compression garments and other athletic apparel, company co-founder Todd Kelsey told WEAR on Tuesday.
His company plans to subcontract production to another manufacturer operating at several locations around the United States, he said. He did not say whether the Sewing Box would be among them.
The Navy has not said when Blue Angels personnel are expected to begin wearing flight suits produced under the new contract, which requires a two-week turnaround time for alterations and repairs to keep up with the pilot’s demonstration schedule.
Aquila International has received a number of federal contracts since at least 2022, including work involving weapons, ordnance and related equipment in addition to apparel manufacturing, contracting documents show.
The total value of its federal contracts since 2018 tops out at over $14.5 million, according to USAspending.gov data.
STARS AND STRIPES VIDEOS
AROUND THE WEB
STRIPES TOP NEWS
