Every year, the October 12 is celebrated in Madrid a military paraderegarding the Spanish National Day, also known as Hispanic Heritage Day. With land and air military equipment, the monarchs seated in the royal gallery and thousands of people in the streets, the sky of the capital is tinted with the red and yellow colors of the national flag, always at the controls of the same team: the Eagle Patrol. This is the Air Force acrobatic team composed of seven planes, with seven regular pilots and seven other reserves: four for the red bands of the flag; the other three, for those of yellow color.
The main task of the Eagle Patrol it’s not militaryalthough it depends on the Air Force: its main function is to represent the country and the institution in all types of events, “proudly” displaying the colors of the flag in the sky. Although in the 1950s and 1960s there was, under another nomenclature, the Eagle Patrol as we know it today. took off for the first time in 1984from the San Javier Air Base (Murcia), in order to test the behavior of the new CASA C-101, an advanced trainer aircraft of Spanish manufacture, also known as blackbird or even chicken.
On this occasion, five planes left. Today there are seven, but in 2023 it will still be the same type of aircraft that makes up the Águila Patrol. Three years after this first flight, the Águila Patrol now has the seven planes that currently make it upalthough it was not until October 12, 1992 that this specialized team painted the Spanish flag in the sky for the first time, although before that it had already included the white smoke system.
Who is in the Eagle Patrol?
The Eagle Patrol team is made up of seven pilots (titular and seven others, reserve), each of them with a specific demarcation, and a manager on the ground, although to these it is also necessary to add a vast support team, including maintenance personnel, equipment techniques, video, photography, aircraft line, etc. THE seven demarcations of the Águila patrol are as follows:
- Eagle 1 (chief): is responsible for occupying the head, while the rest of the eagles extend on both sides. He is the one who leads the flight patrol.
- Eagles 2 and 3 (right stitch and left stitch): These are the pilots who are placed on either side of the leader, responsible for giving stability to their wing.
- Eagle 4 (dog): flies behind the two points and the leader, forming a diamond between the four.
- Eagle 5 (only): is the pilot responsible for the most complex maneuvers, those which put the characteristics of the plane to the extreme.
- Eagle 6 and 7 (right and left pair): It is the pilots who make up the crews and those who are responsible for the maneuvers which require more precision and coordination.
All Eagle Patrol pilots, from the 794th Air Force Squadron, have experience as a flight instructor in the General Air Academy but also in fighter and attack units. Currently and since 2019, the leader of the Eagle Patrol is Commander Daniel Zambrano, responsible for the ground patrol.
This is what the Águila patrol planes look like
He HOUSE C-101 Since its creation, it has been the type of aircraft that has participated in the aerobatics of the Águila Patrol. It is an advanced training aircraft that allows “complete aeronautical training from the first phases of flight through the transition to combat aircraft,” according to the Air Force. The CASA C-101, also known as the E25 blackbird or, among the students of the General Air Academy (AGA), chickenis manufactured in Spain (Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA, CASA). It is an aircraft that measures approximately 12 meters long and a little less than 4 and a half meters high, with an (empty) weight of 3,080 kilos.
The CASA C-101 aircraft can reach maximum speed of 770 kilometers per houralthough its cruising speed is around 730 kilometers per hour and its range is around 4,000 kilometers. Today, although they are still an integral part of the Eagle Patrol, they are no longer part of the AGA’s teaching programs. Until 2022, flight instructions were carried out with CASA C-101; However, since last year the new training aircraft is the Pilatus, capable of offering more complete and digital teaching and, in addition, more efficient, with lower energy consumption and fewer dioxide emissions of carbon.
This is what it’s like to fly on an Águila Patrol plane
In 2017, one of laSexta’s journalists became an eagle for a day. Bea Osa boarded one of the Eagle Patrol fighters to show it to the world what it feels like to be in one of the aerobatic planes of the Army.
