The extended name of the Frecce Tricolori is National Acrobatic Patrol and are made up of the 313th Acrobatic Training Group. They have been active since 1961 and color the skies with our flag and incredible stunts.
The group consists of 10 aircraft: nine in formation and one soloist. The flight program includes about twenty stunts. The duration of a show is about half an hour. The Frecce Tricolori, for their extraordinary acrobatics, are indicated as the best national acrobatic team.
The beginning…
The first aerobatic flight school in Italy, was born in the Udine-Campoformido Airport in 1930 at the behest of Colonel Rino Corso Fougier. In June of the same year, the first air show of the Frecce Tricolori was held. During the years of the Second World War, the patrol was dissolved but refounded immediately after the end of the conflict.
In May 1957 the team was at full capacity and began its activity at the Turin-Caselle airport, exhibiting at the international aeronautics and space exhibition in Paris-Le Bourget.
The success came from the fact that, for the first time, white smoke generators were used that made the stunts more prominent.
The birth of the Frecce Tricolori
At the end of the 60s it was decided to create a specific department as a national aerobatic team and not to continue to turn the various flocks. The best drivers from the various departments would have created the Frecce Tricolori team. The General Staff of the Air Force commissioned Major Mario Squarcina to create the National Aerobatic Team.
In March 1961 at the Rivolto airport, the 313rd Acrobatic Training Group was born.
The first official exit of the Group was in May of the same year for a demonstration of the local Aero Club. Unfortunately a few days later, during a training, there was a collision of two planes and two pilots died. The squad with today's number of drivers was created in 1963 and the possibility of using colored fumes was introduced in the same year.
The aircraft, which are still in use now, the Aermacchi MB-339 A / PAN MLU, went into operation in 1982.
The flight schedule
There are three execution programs and they are defined: high (clouds above 100m and only vertical displays), Bass (clouds on 500/600 meters and non-vertical displays) e dish (provides for the passage of aircraft at low altitudes). These differences depend on the weather conditions and the exhibition area.
In recent years, when it is possible, all the performances of the Frecce Tricolori end with the entire formation that creates a tricolor in the sky about five kilometers long with the background "Nessun dorma”By Luciano Pavarotti. For this reason, on the day of the artist's funeral, the patrol paid homage to him by passing through the sky of Modena.
Only the best drivers manage to pass the selections. Each year only one or two pilots, with at least one thousand flight hours, are chosen to participate in the program.
Curiosities about the Frecce Tricolori
The Frecce Tricolori are a flagship of Italy and the Air Force. In 2005 the Aprilia motorcycle family created a twinning with the aeronautics to promote their business through the Frecce Tricolori. In 2010, Pagani Automobili, to celebrate the twenty years of the team, created three models of the Zonda supercar which was called Pagani Zonda Tricolori. In the city of New York, at the aeronaval museum, an aircraft of the Frecce Tricolori is positioned on the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid.
