Exclusive premiere of the Patrouille de France aerobatic group

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Exclusive premiere of the Patrouille de France aerobatic group

31.05.2019, 13:24

Already the third aerobatic group is heading to this year's NATO Days in Ostrava & Czech Air Force Days - the French Patrouille de France with Alpha Jet aircraft. It is also the last of the top European groups that did not present itself on the Mošnov airport so far.

The Patrouille de France is considered to be the oldest and one of the most professional aerobatic groups, making it one of the world's absolute top. Visitors can look forward to a demonstration of the precise flying of the eight Alpha Jet E aircraft. However, they will only be able to see it during the Saturday program, as the group will be performing in Greece on Sunday.

"The Patrouille de France is planning only five performances outside France this year, we are so pleased they chose also NATO Days and our celebrations of the 70^th anniversary of NATO's foundation," says Zbyněk Pavlačík, Chairman of Jagello 2000. "Three aerobatic groups did yet not meet at our event, all of them will be here for the first time - Patrouille de France, the Swiss PC-7 Team, and Finnish Midnight Hawks, and we believe that it will be a truly extraordinary experience to all visitors."

"The aerobatic group Patrouille de France, based at Salon de Provence, participates time to time at an unconventional performances. That was the case of a unique group with A220, A320, A330neo, A350 XWB, A380 and BelugaXL transport aircraft made by Airbus on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of this manufacturer, "adds Jan Čadil, editor-in-chief of Aviation+Astronautics magazine.

Patrouille de France pilots fly in an eight-member formation at speeds of 300 km/h to 800 km/h at a distance of 2 to 3 meters. In doing so, they are exposed to an overload of -3 to 7 G. The group showed her first performance in 1931 and traditionally participates in the French military parade on July 14, to celebrate the conquest of Bastille.

The Patrouille de France group currently uses Alpha Jet E aircraft, which was developed in the 1970s under the French-German collaboration of Dassault and Dornier. This is a lightweight, twin-engined jet trainer. Currently, it is still used by French, Belgian or Canadian Air Force mainly for training, but it serves also for an air support role in some African or Asian air forces.