Spain’s national aerobatic team, Patrulla Águila, is no more – despite earlier claims that the team would re-equip with the E.27 (Pilatus PC-21).
The long-standing team, active since 1985, marked its final display on the venerable E.25 Mirlo (C-101EB Aviojet) this June at Aire ’25, a major one-off airshow in San Javier, Spain. At the time, it had been officially confirmed that the team would re-equip with E.27s, and the unit had even flown a special mixed-formation flypast at the show as a symbolic passing of the baton. The team was due to start as a five-ship, expanding incremently over the coming years.
It now seems that this won’t happen. In the lead up to a flypast over Madrid, it has been revealed that the E.27 formation will not be a continuation of Patrulla Águila, but will be an entirely new team, with the tentative name of Formación Mirlo. The team flies five E.27s equipped with multicoloured Sanders smoke generators under the wings. The new team will debut on the 12th of October.
As it stands, Formación Mirlo is only performing flypasts, not aerobatic displays.