Page 6 - World Airshow News Q3 2024

Jim Froneberger: Editor

Grazie, Frecce Tricolori

O ne of the things I’ve always en- WaterStone Bank Air & Water Show on the shores of Lake Michi-
gan. The weather on Saturday was about as perfect as it could
joyed about airshows is seeing
things I’ve never seen before.
not a cloud to be seen in the clear blue Wisconsin sky.
One airshow that almost always fea- ever be for an airshow, with temperatures around 80 degrees and
tures a lot of new and interesting In addition to the Frecce Tricolori, the airshow featured a
things is EAA AirVenture in Osh- great lineup of primarily military performers, including the
kosh, Wisconsin. Army’s Golden Knights, USAF and Air National Guard fly-bys,
The 2024 edition of AirVenture and the Navy’s F/A-18F Super Hornet demonstration. The grand
was no exception. This year, all four finale was the USAF Thunderbirds, and as they always do, the
of the USAF single-ship tactical jet Thunderbirds wowed the crowd with the power of their F-16
demonstration teams performed Fighting Falcons and a perfectly matched musical soundtrack.
during the daily airshows – the There’s nothing quite like seeing the dramatic High Bomb Burst
A-10, F-16, F-22, and F-35. While flown to Celine Dion’s version of “God Bless America”.
the teams themselves are not new or unusual, having them all at As great as the Thunderbirds were as a closer, it was the Frecce
the same place is. I’m not sure if all four teams have ever appeared Tricolori that I had come to see. About midway through the show,
together at a public airshow before. and with “Il Canto degli Italiani”, the Italian National anthem,
There was even more. An almost unprecedented four military playing over the loudspeakers, the Frecce Tricolori streaked
jet formation teams made appearances of some type at AirVen- over the crowd from behind. As the ten Aermacchi MB-339 jets
ture. The Canadian Snowbirds headlined the afternoon airshows pulled up into a graceful loop, the white smoke changed to the
from Friday to Sunday, and much to everyone’s surprise, both the team’s trademark red, white, and green, and the show was on.
US Navy Blue Angels and USAF Thunderbirds performed fly- Over the next 25 minutes, we were treated to a graceful dis-
bys over the AirVenture grounds on Wednesday (the Blues) and play of nine-ship precision formation aerobatics that also fea-
Thursday (the Birds). The Thunderbirds even performed their tured many dynamic break, burst, and rejoin maneuvers. The
spectacular Delta Burst before departing the area. Frecce Tricolori are famous for their exciting crossing patterns,
The fourth military jet team to make an AirVenture appear- where a five-ship formation and a four-ship formation cross
ance was actually the most unique – Italy’s Frecce Tricolori. The head-on at show center a few times during the show. The tenth
Frecce Tricolori visited North America this summer for the first jet, the solo pilot, took his turn in front of the crowd during for-
th
time since 1992, helping Canada celebrate the 100 anniversary mation rejoins and turnarounds, performing both a jet tail slide
of the Royal Canadian Air Force at a handful of Canadian air- and tumbling end-over-end in the only lomcevak I’ve ever seen
shows. They also appeared at over a half dozen show sites in the flown in a military jet.
United States, plus several flyovers above U.S. and Canadian cit- The conclusion of the Frecce Tricolori performance was the
ies and landmarks. The Italians made a brief stop in Oshkosh “World’s Longest Italian Flag.” After an exhilarating head-on pass
on Tuesday on their way to the Milwaukee airshow and treated with the solo jet, and with red, white, and green smoke billowing,
the AirVenture crowds to several non-aerobatic passes featuring the main formation made a smooth climbing left turn to create
eleven jets trailing their trademark red, white, and green smoke – their huge flag. With musical tracks from both Andrea Bocelli
the colors of the Italian flag. and Luciano Pavarotti to accentuate their performance, the Frec-
Since I had never seen the Frecce Tricolori perform before, ce Tricolori offer an airshow performance with a uniquely Italian
I decided to head down from Oshkosh to Milwaukee over the flair.
weekend so I could catch their full aerobatic performance at the Grazie, Frecce Tricolori. Ho adorato lo spettacolo!

The Frecce Tricolori create the “World’s
Longest Italian Flag” at the WaterStone Bank
Air & Water Show in Milwaukee (photo by
the author).

Editor’s footnote: For those of
you who don’t read Italian, the
last line above means “Thank you,
Frecce Tricolori. I loved the show!”

www.airshowmag.com 6 Quarter 3, 2024