In 2024, the Frecce Tricolori will visit the U.S. and Canada for the first North American tour since 1992, showcasing aerial mastery and painting the Italian flag in numerous events

On Nov. 23, 2023, during the presentation of the Italian Air Force 2024 calendar, Gen. Luca Goretti, the Chief of Staff of the Italian Air Force, announced that the Italian Air Force Display Team the Frecce Tricolori will tour North America in 2024, the first time in over 30 years.

In 2023, The Italian Air Force celebrated their 100-year anniversary, and the team has primarily performed in Italy with a number of displays and flypasts all across the country. Next year the team will fly over Canada, where they will join the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) as they celebrate their centenary. The North American tour is the third one across the U.S. and Canada and the first in more than 30 years. The first tour took place in 1986 and the second one in 1992.

While a specific schedule was not yet announced, Gen. Luca Goretti did announce that among the North American tour will be a flyover and a performance in Los Angeles, California, aligning with the arrival of the Italian Navy’s Amerigo Vespucci. The training vessel is the oldest naval vessel of the Italian Navy at 92 years old. In July of 2023, the ship set out on a 20-month world tour, sailing over 40,000 nautical miles while visiting 31 ports, 28 countries, and five continents. The Amerigo Vespucci is scheduled to visit Los Angeles July 1-6, 2024, which hints at a July visit to California for the Frecce Tricolori.

The Team

The Frecce Tricolori (Italian “Tricolour Arrows"), officially known as the 313° Gruppo Addestramento Acrobatico, Pattuglia Acrobatica Nazionale (PAN) Frecce Tricolori, is the aerobatic demonstration team of the Italian Air Force. Based at Rivolto Air Base, province of Udine, it was created on 1st of March 1961 as a permanent group for the training of Air Force pilots in aerobatics.

The team consists of 13 Aermacchi MB-339-A/PAN, a two-seat fighter-trainer aircraft, only 10 of which actually take part in displays. The remaining three are spare aircraft. With ten aircraft, nine in close formation and a soloist, they are the world's largest aerobatic team. All team members carry the call-signs “Pony”, followed by the number of the team aircraft. “Pony #0” is flown by the commanding officer of the squadron. The commanding officer must be a former team member but he doesn’t fly in the actual demonstrations. The formation team leader flies Pony #1 and he must also have flown with the team previously. The team’s solo pilot flies in the #10 position. All candidate pilots for the Frecce Tricolori must have accumulated a minimum of 750 flying hours on jet aircraft

The 313th Aerobatic Training Group was founded on the 1st of March 1961 at the Rivolto Air Base. On the same day, six North American F-86 Sabers of the 4th Air Brigade took off from Grosseto to Rivolto. Pattuglia Acrobatica Nazionale performed their first official display On the 1st of May 1961 at the Trento airport with five F86 Saber aircraft. Unfortunately, just three days later, on May 3rd, one of the planes crashed killing the pilot.

The Frecce Tricolori flew on North American F-86 Sabers until 1963. The staff, initially not as numerous as today, was enlarged in 1963 to nine aircraft plus the soloist, adding the possibility of using coloured smoke. The following year the Fiat G.91PAN fighter-bombers arrived and in 1982 the team moved to their current aircraft the Aermacchi MB-339 A/PAN MLU.

The MB-339 will be replaced by the M-345 in the near future so this will quite possibly be the last North American tour for the team on the MB-339’s.

The Aircraft

The team is equipped with the PAN version of the MB-339A, a single engine tandem seat military jet trainer and light attack aircraft designed and manufactured by Italian aviation company Aermacchi. The MB-339 was developed during the 1970s in response to an Italian Air Force requirement that sought a replacement for the service's existing fleet of Aermacchi MB-326. Its design was derived from that of the MB-326, rather than a new design, and thus the two aircraft share considerable similarities in terms of their design. Aermacchi had found that the MB-339 was capable of satisfying all of the specified requirements while being the most affordable option available. The maiden flight of the MB-339 took place on the 12th of August 1976; the first production aircraft was delivered two years later.

Apart from the livery, the team’s aircraft differ from the standard model serving with the Italian Air Force by the presence of an onboard coloured smoke generation system (green, white and red). The smoke generation system is controlled by two buttons, one on the flight stick (white smoke) and another one on the throttle (coloured smoke). The system is fed from an underwing fuel tank filled with a colouring agent which is discharged through nozzles placed in the jet exhaust. The agent, vaporised in the jet exhaust to produce either red, white or green smoke.