Patrulla Águila

The military dare-devils

The Spanish Airforce aeronautical acrobatics team, Patrulle Ábuila or Eagle Patrol, has been flying small jets for many years. You can see them whooshing by any time of the day Mondays through Fridays, though obviously not during the siësta as they usually return to base between 12:00 and 13:00! The old jet planes are quite loud as they pass over for landing. But on the flip side, we get to see their acrobatics up close as they practice and demonstrate formation flying over the Mar Menor.

As some of you perhaps have noticed, a new airplane type is in the process of being adopted. In 2019, the Spanish airforce decided to replace the old fleet of Spanish-built Casa C-101 Aviojet with Swiss-built Pilatus PC-21. These planes are not only in use for acrobatics by the Patrulla Águila, but also in other places as regular, albeit light, military attack jets.

The new plane is a turboprop that uses a propellor rather than jet propulsion as the ‘old’ ones did. The difference in noise is quite significant if they fly over at low altitudes in preparation for landing at San Javier military airport. The old jets do a fair bit of screaming, while the new turboprops are much more quiet.

The old C-101 Aviojet:

The new Pilatus PC-21:

I hope to complete this post with some pictures of the Pilatus plane in the Patrulla Águila livery shortly.

See more on the Patrulla Aguila here.

Sources:

Paul, 2022-11

 

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