Frecce Tricolori

The Frecce Tricolori (Italian “Tricolour Arrows"), officially known as the 313° Gruppo Addestramento Acrobatico, Pattuglia Acrobatica Nazionale (PAN) Frecce Tricolori, is the aerobatic demonstration team of the Italian Air Force. Based at Rivolto Air Base, province of Udine, it was created on 1st of March 1961 as a permanent group for the training of Air Force pilots in aerobatics.

The team consists of 13 Aermacchi MB-339-A/PAN, a two-seat fighter-trainer aircraft, only 10 of which actually take part in displays. The remaining three are spare aircraft. With ten aircraft, nine in close formation and a soloist, they are the world's largest aerobatic team. All team members carry the call-signs “Pony”, followed by the number of the team aircraft. “Pony #0” is flown by the commanding officer of the squadron. The commanding officer must be a former team member but he doesn’t fly in the actual demonstrations. The formation team leader flies Pony #1 and he must also have flown with the team previously. The team’s solo pilot flies in the #10 position. All candidate pilots for the Frecce Tricolori must have accumulated a minimum of 750 flying hours on jet aircraft

The 313th Aerobatic Training Group was founded on the 1st of March 1961 at the Rivolto Air Base. On the same day, six North American F-86 Sabers of the 4th Air Brigade took off from Grosseto to Rivolto. Pattuglia Acrobatica Nazionale performed their first official display On the 1st of May 1961 at the Trento airport with five F86 Saber aircraft. Unfortunately, just three days later, on May 3rd, one of the planes crashed killing the pilot.

The Frecce Tricolori flew on North American F-86 Sabers until 1963. The staff, initially not as numerous as today, was enlarged in 1963 to nine aircraft plus the soloist, adding the possibility of using coloured smoke. The following year the Fiat G.91PAN fighter-bombers arrived and in 1982 the team moved to their current aircraft the Aermacchi MB-339 A/PAN MLU.

On the 28th of August 1988, the Frecce Tricoli was struck by a tragedy now remembered as the Ramstein disaster, in which three pilots and 67 spectators lost their lives. Two of the three dead pilots, Mario Naldini and Ivo Nutarelli, were supposed to testify at the trial for the Itavia Flight 870 a few days later. This was the cause of various suspicions about the actual nature of an "accident" of what happened.

In 2000 the team reached 50,000 flying hours on the Aermacchi MB-339 and in 2005 won the award for best display at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford, England. They were also the first non-Russian unit to receive the Russian Silver Medal for Aeronautical Merit.