The Patrouille Suisse is an

aerobatic team Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in conventional passenger-carrying flights. The term is a portmanteau of "aerial" and "acrobatics". Aerobatics are performed in aeroplanes and glid ...

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 ...

. The team flies six

Northrop F-5E Tiger II The Northrop F-5 is a family of supersonic light fighter aircraft initially designed as a privately funded project in the late 1950s by Northrop Corporation. There are two main models, the original F-5A and F-5B Freedom Fighter variants and the ...

fighter/bomber jets.

History

The Patrouille Suisse was founded on August 22, 1964 with four

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 ...

s. Two displays were also flown 1968 with the

Dassault Mirage III The Dassault Mirage III () is a family of single/dual-seat, single-engine, fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by French aircraft company Dassault Aviation. It was the first Western European combat aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in horizonta ...

S under the name "Patrouille de Suisse Mirage". Other than those shows the Patrouille Suisse retained the Hunter. In 1970, a fifth aircraft was added to the team, followed by the sixth shortly thereafter. In 1977 a smoke system was introduced. The Patrouille Suisse flew its Hawker Hunters for the last time in 1994 and transitioned to the faster and more maneuverable

adding smoke systems in 1996. In April the following year, a

Pilatus PC-6 Porter The Pilatus PC-6 Porter is a single-engined STOL utility aircraft designed by Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland. First flown in 1959, the PC-6 was produced at Pilatus Flugzeugwerke in Stans, Switzerland. It has been built in both piston engine- an ...

single-engine

turboprop A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. Fuel ...

light aircraft was assigned as a support aircraft, painted in the team's colour scheme. In February 2013, the Swiss Minister of Defence,

Ueli Maurer Ulrich "Ueli" Maurer (; born 1 December 1950) is a Swiss politician who has served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council since 2009. A member of the Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), he was President of the Swiss Confederation in 2013 and 2019 ...

, stated that the Patrouille Suisse would be disbanded by early 2016 due to the withdrawal of the F-5 from service. One possible plan was to equip the team with the

F/A-18C The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather, twinjet, twin-engine, supersonic aircraft, supersonic, carrier-based aircraft, carrier-capable, Multirole combat aircraft, multirole combat aircraft, designed as both a Fighter aircraft, ...

, but since the decision not to buy 22 Gripen E aircraft was made, the air force will have insufficient F/A-18s to do this. As of the summer of 2014 the new plan is that by the end of 2016 the team will move from six F-5Es to four F/A-18Cs. Fewer air displays will be flown and the aircraft will probably not receive special paint. There are still plans by the Swiss Air Force and in the Swiss parliament to operate eighteen F-5E and four F-5F until 2018. This would also include the continued operation of the Patrouille Suisse flying the F-5E until 2018. A unique Flight Demonstration was performed by the Patrouille Suisse on September 7, 2014 at the Air14 Air Show at

Payerne Air Base Payerne Airport is a military airfield of the Swiss Air Force north of Payerne in Switzerland, located approximately halfway between Lausanne and Bern. History In 2004 the International Air Show Air04 was held at Payerne. On 8 July 2010, Paye ...

as they flew a 15-plane display with the

PC-7 Team The PC-7 Team is an aerobatics team of the Swiss Air Force. It derives its name from the Pilatus PC-7 trainer, the team's primary aircraft. History Soon after the PC-7 was introduced in 1982, the Swiss Air Force started to present the new a ...

Accidents

On June 9, 2016 two of the Northrop F-5E Tiger II's collided in mid-air, while training for the

Royal Netherlands Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = ''Parade March of the Royal Netherlands Air Force'' , mascot = , anniversaries = , equipment ...

Open Days airshow at

Leeuwarden Air Base Leeuwarden Air Base ( nl, Vliegbasis Leeuwarden) is a military airbase used by the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) - nl, Koninklijke Luchtmacht (''KLu''), . The airbase was formerly one of the two F-16 Fighting Falcon bases of the RNLAF ...

. One aircraft crashed in a pond near

Beetgum Bitgum ( nl, Beetgum) is a village in Waadhoeke municipality in the province of Friesland in the Netherlands. It had a population of around 792 in January 2017. History Before 2018, the village was part of the Menameradiel municipality. Bitgum g ...

after the pilot safely ejected, while the other was damaged, but landed safely. It was the first accident the team has had. Patrouille Suisse at ILA 2010 07

Aircraft

The Patrouille Suisse normally operates six Northrop F-5E Tiger II aircraft out of total of twelve F-5Es that are maintained in team colors. Since 1996 ten aircraft are able to accept one of the eight smoke generators that were made by

RUAG RUAG Holding (originally Rüstungs Unternehmen Aktiengesellschaft; Joint Stock Defence Company) is a Swiss company specialising in aerospace engineering and the defence industry. Its headquarters are located in Bern, while it also has numerous pr ...

. When fitted with a smoke generator, including the two bottles of diesel, the right gun of the F-5E is disabled. The teams F-5Es are also used for other purposes such as training and as target tugs flown by Target Squadron 12, facilitated by their high visibility colouring. A

Pilatus PC-6 The Pilatus PC-6 Porter is a single-engined STOL utility aircraft designed by Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland. First flown in 1959, the PC-6 was produced at Pilatus Flugzeugwerke in Stans, Switzerland. It has been built in both piston engine- an ...

V-622 "Felix", painted in Patrouille Suisse colours, transports the commander, announcer and the team

groundcrew In all forms of aviation, ground crew (also known as ground operations in civilian aviation) are personnel that service aircraft while on the ground, during routine turn-around; as opposed to aircrew, who operate all aspects of an aircraft whilst ...

References

External links

Video
of one

Airbus A330 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body aircraft developed and produced by Airbus. Airbus conceived several derivatives of the A300, its first airliner in the mid-1970s. Then the company began development on the A330 twinjet in parallel with the A340 ...

and six

aircraft at the Air14 airshow at Payerne.
Official website
- only
Patrouille Suisse photosTeambook 2016 (German /English Text)with a list of all pilots since 1964
{{Authority control Swiss Air Force Aerobatic teams Military units and formations established in 1964 Articles containing video clips

History

Accidents

Aircraft

See also

References

External links