''Fliegerstaffel 5'' ("Fighter Squadron 5") was a unit of the

Swiss Air Force The Swiss Air Force (german: Schweizer Luftwaffe; french: Forces aériennes suisses; it, Forze aeree svizzere; rm, Aviatica militara svizra) is the air component of the Swiss Armed Forces, established on 31 July 1914 as a part of the army and ...

. It belonged to the

Überwachungsgeschwader The (UeG) ( en, surveillance squadron, french: escadre de surveillance, it, Squadra di vigilanza) was the overall unit of the Swiss Air Force professional pilots. History In the 20th century, Swiss military pilots were fundamentally militia ...

with professional military pilots. It was equipped with the

Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-R ...

. Its home base was Interlaken Air Base. ''Fliegerstaffel 5'' carried as a coat of arms a black lynx with yellow eyes, which stretched its right paw with claws. From his mouth came red flames, which went into the background. The badge was round and had a white base. Under the lynx was written in black ''5ème escadrille''. Later, the badge was changed into a shield-shaped coat-of-arms with a stylized lynx head, often mistaken as a dragon head.

History

The unit was founded in 1925 as ''Fliegerkompanie 5'', flying Häfeli DH-5 and EKW C-35 biplanes. In 1940 they were replaced by the new Morane D-3800 fighters. In 1945, during a reorganization, the unit was redesignated ''Fliegerstaffel 5''. From 1951 to 1959 ''Fliegerstaffel 5'' operated de Havilland D.H.100 Vampire jets. From 1959 they operated

jets out of Raron Airfield. They were later relocated to Interlaken until 1994 when the Hawker Hunter was put out of service and ''Fliegerstaffel 5'' was disbanded. The military airfield at Interlaken continued for some time as a military helicopter base and competence center for war repairs/battle damage repair, until it was handed over to a civilian operator. The most famous member of the ''Fliegerstaffel 5'' was the Swiss

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

Claude Nicollier who piloted the Hunter until the ''fliegerstaffel'' was disbanded in 1994.

Aircraft flown

* Häfeli DH-5 * EKW C-36 * Morane D-3800 * de Havilland Vampire *

References

* * * {{Swiss Air Force Squadrons & Units Squadrons of the Swiss Air Force Military units and formations established in 1925 Military units and formations disestablished in 1994 1994 disestablishments in Switzerland