I was working through some RIAT photos of the Patrouille de France display.  I had some tight shots of the first four jets as they took off and, as I looked closer at them, I was confused as to why two of the jets had a more nose high attitude than the other two.  Since they are taking off on formation, I figured that they should look the same.

A closer look at the images and it seems that the flap settings of the jets vary.  The nose high aircraft seem to have less flap – hence their need for a higher angle of attack – than the other two jets.  I have been trying the think why they would adopt this approach.  With all jets accelerating together and climbing together, I had imagined that they would all be in the same configuration.  I wonder whether there is something to do with the outwash from the nearby jets that requires a different configuration but I haven’t come up with anything conclusive.  I throw it out to the aero engineers that read this to propose your ideas as to why.  If any of you know anyone in the PdF, feel free to ask them instead!