Precision flying team is an aircraft demonstration unit that entertains spectators by flying in close formation and performing aerial acrobatics and other feats. Other terms, such as aerobatic team, demonstration flight team, and display flying team, are also used to refer to such units. Most precision flying teams are part of a country’s armed forces. A military flying team generally does not participate in warfare, but instead promotes public relations for the armed forces by performing in air shows. Some universities and private flying clubs also have flight teams that appear in air shows and compete against other teams.
Famous military flying teams include the Blue Angels of the United States Navy; the Thunderbirds of the U.S. Air Force; the Canadian Forces Air Demonstration Team, better known as the Snowbirds; the Red Arrows of the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force (RAF); the Roulettes of the Royal Australian Air Force; and the Suryakirans (Rays of the Sun) of the Indian Air Force. Air forces or other military branches of several other countries, including France, Italy, the Philippines, Spain, and Singapore, also have precision flying teams.
The members of a precision flying team typically all fly the same type of aircraft. The aircraft are painted in a special color scheme that differs from that of aircraft used in battle.
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The RAF’s first aerial pageant, held in 1920, featured precision formation flying. In 1929, the Royal Canadian Air Force formed a flying team called the Siskins. The Royal Australian Air Force formed its first display team in 1934.
At the end of World War II (1939-1945), Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the chief of U.S. naval operations, ordered the formation of a flying team to keep Americans interested in naval aviation. This team, the Blue Angels, performed its first demonstration in 1946. The Blue Angels became famous for flying in the shape of a diamond. In 1947, the RAF formed the first precision flying team that piloted jet aircraft. The U.S. Air Force’s Thunderbirds were founded in 1953 as the 3600th Air Demonstration Unit.
