Finland Finnish Air Force

Midnight Hawks

Four-aircraft BAE Systems Hawk aerobatic team

Midnight Hawks is the Finnish Air Force’s official aerobatic team. Its four-aircraft flying formation is crewed by qualified flight instructors from the Air Force Academy’s Fighter Squadron 41. They turn the precision of Finland’s jet-training system into a display that can be adapted to good, medium or low cloud.

Named
1997
Formation
4 aircraft
Aircraft
BAE Systems Hawk
Flying roles
Leader, wings, slot
Parent unit
Fighter Squadron 41
Home
Tikkakoski

The team

Four instructors, four positions, one tightly connected formation.

Built inside the training unit

Midnight Hawks is not a separate full-time display squadron. Its four display pilots are qualified flight instructors serving with Fighter Squadron 41 at the Finnish Air Force Academy. Flight instruction is their primary job; formation-aerobatic training is carried out alongside those normal responsibilities.

What the four flying positions do

Number 1 leads the formation and establishes its flight path. Numbers 2 and 3 fly the left and right wing positions, while Number 4 occupies the slot at the rear. The leader presents the overall manoeuvre; the other three pilots hold precise visual references so the formation behaves as one aircraft.

More than four people

The four-aircraft formation is only the flying element. A team supervisor observes from the ground and oversees the safety and visual quality of the manoeuvres. The number-seven rookie handles commentary, music, social-media production and general team duties, while maintenance personnel support the aircraft. That wider ground organisation is essential to every display.

The display

Three routines for three kinds of sky.

Midnight Hawks does not force one sequence into every weather window. The team has good-, medium- and low-cloud programmes. Each preserves the identity of the four-ship display while changing the amount of height needed above the show line.

Tight diamond

The signature formation makes small errors easy to see and rewards exact station-keeping by all four pilots.

Good weather

The full programme moves from diamond formation work into vertical manoeuvres, then breaks and reforming.

Medium cloud

High vertical elements and splits are replaced by manoeuvres that can be completed at a lower altitude.

Low cloud

Horizontal manoeuvres and formation changes keep the display readable when the cloud ceiling removes vertical space.

Break and reform

Separation changes the picture for the audience; a controlled rejoin then rebuilds the four-aircraft formation.

Smoke when fitted

The Hawks come from the normal training and maintenance rotation, so a smoke pod is not guaranteed on every aircraft. When fitted, smoke makes the path of the formation easier to follow.

The aircraft

BAE Systems Hawk: Finland’s advanced and tactical jet trainer.

The bridge into fast-jet flying

The Hawk is a British single-engine, two-seat advanced jet trainer. In Finland it gives student pilots their first jet experience after piston-aircraft training. The initial Hawk phase covers the type rating, navigation, instrument flying, aerobatics, formation work and night flying; the later phase adds basic air-to-air and air-to-ground training.

Three Finnish variants

Finland became the Hawk’s first export customer when it ordered 50 Mk 51s in 1977. The type entered Finnish service in 1980. Four Mk 51s were built in Britain and 46 were assembled by Valmet in Finland. Seven Mk 51As were ordered in 1993, and 18 low-hour Mk 66s were acquired from Switzerland in 2007 before modification and upgrade work brought them into Finnish use between 2011 and 2013.

No permanently assigned display fleet

Midnight Hawks uses aircraft from the Finnish Air Force’s normal training and maintenance rotation. Depending on availability, a display may use Finnish-flag-marked Mk 51s or red-and-white Mk 66s, and not every aircraft is necessarily fitted with a smoke pod. The formation therefore does not always look identical from one appearance to the next.

A cockpit updated for modern training

Upgraded Finnish Hawks use head-up and liquid-crystal displays, a moving map, and digital mission-planning and debriefing tools. The Mk 66 also received the Hawk Link system, which exchanges position data between aircraft and helps students build the situational awareness expected in modern fighter training.

The story so far

A modern team built on a much older instructor-display tradition.

Earlier roots

Training instructors display their craft

Finnish Air Force training instructors were flying formation displays long before the Midnight Hawks name existed. Their performances became closely associated with the Midnight Sun airshow tradition at the former Air Force Academy base at Kauhava.

1980

The Hawk enters Finnish service

The Hawk replaced the Fouga Magister advanced trainer and the MiG-15UTI lead-in trainer. It became the fast-jet teaching aircraft from which the later four-ship display developed.

7 Jun 1997

The Midnight Hawks name is introduced

The Finnish Air Force display team first flew under its current name at Oulu. “Midnight” connected the new identity with Finland’s bright summer nights and the established Kauhava airshow tradition.

2007–13

The Finnish Hawk family expands

Finland acquired 18 former Swiss Mk 66s in 2007. Modification and upgrade work brought the aircraft into service between 2011 and 2013, adding a later Hawk variant to the training system.

2017

Twenty years under the name

The team marked its twentieth anniversary while six Hawks used by the team received a special blue-and-white scheme for the centenary of Finnish independence. Four Mk 51s represented the team at the Royal International Air Tattoo.

Understanding the identity

Why the name matters — and what the display is really showing.

01

The midnight connection

The name points to the midnight sun and the long, bright evenings of the Finnish summer. It also preserves a link with the Midnight Sun airshow at Kauhava, where Air Force training instructors had traditionally demonstrated formation flying.

02

A public face of the syllabus

The display is credible because it grows from the team’s ordinary profession. Formation discipline, instrument awareness, aerobatics and tactical judgement are all parts of fast-jet instruction. The airshow sequence makes that training culture visible without pretending the Hawks are front-line fighters.

European Airshows photography

Look for the leader, left and right wingmen, and the slot aircraft at the rear; then follow how the smoke makes formation changes, breaks and the signature tight diamond easier to read.

Three fighter jets flying in close formation against a clear blue sky, emitting white smoke trails.
Four military fighter jets flying in formation with smoke trails against a blue sky during an air show.
Three military fighter jets flying in formation during an air show, with the top jet ascending and the two jets below flying parallel, all emitting white smoke trails against a clear blue sky.
Four fighter jets performing an aerial acrobatic display with smoke trails against a blue sky, with one jet upside down.
Four military jets flying in formation above green trees, leaving white smoke trails behind on a clear blue sky.
A military jet flying through the sky, gray in color with a cockpit and a tall vertical tail fin marked with the number 4 and 50, emitting white vapor trails.
A formation of four gray military jet aircraft flying in a close V shape with white smoke trails against a clear blue sky.
Three military jet fighter planes flying in formation with white smoke trails against a cloudy sky.
A military jet in flight, leaving white smoke trails behind it, against a clear blue sky.
Four fighter jets flying in formation with white smoke trails against a blue sky.
Five fighter jets flying in formation, each leaving white smoke trails against a clear blue sky.
An aircraft performing a stunt flying through the air, leaving white smoke trail against a blue sky.
Four military fighter jets flying in tight formation through the sky, leaving smoke trails behind them.
Six fighter jets flying in close formation against a clear blue sky, leaving white smoke trails.
Four military fighter jets flying in formation through clear blue sky with white smoke trails.
Four fighter jets flying in close formation, performing an aerial stunt, leaving white smoke trails against a clear blue sky.
Four military aircraft flying in formation, leaving white smoke trails against a blue sky during an air show.
Two fighter jets flying in close formation against a blue sky, leaving white smoke trails behind them.
Four military jet aircraft flying in formation against a cloudy sky, with a mix of red, black, and gray aircraft.
Four military jets flying in formation against a cloudy sky, two with red and white color scheme and two with darker gray and black color scheme.
Four fighter jets flying in a formation, two are gray at the top and three are red below, against a gray sky.
Three red and white aerobatic jets flying in a tight formation against a cloudy sky, numbered 1, 2, and 3.
Four fighter jets flying in formation, with the top two jets painted red and white, and the bottom jet painted dark gray.
Four military fighter jets flying in formation against a gray sky, each with distinct tail and nose markings.
Three fighter jets flying in formation against a cloudy sky, with two jets painted in red and gray and one in dark gray.
Five fighter jets flying in a tight formation, with three red jets and two gray jets against a cloudy sky.
Four fighter jets flying in a close formation against a cloudy sky, with three gray and one black aircraft.
Four fighter jets flying in formation against a partly cloudy sky.
Four fighter jets flying in formation against a cloudy sky, with two jets painted red and gray, and two jets painted dark gray.
Two fighter jets flying in formation against a gray sky, one dark gray and one red and white.
Four military fighter jets flying in a tight vertical echelon formation against a cloudy sky. The top jet is gray with a blue number 4, and the bottom three jets are red and white with blue numbers 3, 2, and 1.
Two red and white fighter jets flying closely in formation against a cloudy sky.