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**Frecce Tricolori**
**313° Gruppo Addestramento Acrobatico**
Frecce Tricolori; 313° Gruppo Addestramento Acrobatico
	; RIAT, England, 2005
Active	1961 to date
Country	Italy
Branch	Italian Air Force
Role	Aerobatic display team
Garrison/HQ	Rivolto Air Force Base; Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Province of Udine Italy
Insignia
Frecce Tricolori Badge
Aircraft flown
Fighter	1961 - 1963 CANADAIR F86e; 1964 - 1981 Fiat G.91 PAN
Trainer	1982 - date Aermacchi MB-339 PAN

The Frecce Tricolori (Italian, literally Tricolour Arrows), officially known as the 313° Gruppo Addestramento Acrobatico, is the aerobatic demonstration team of the Italian Air Force, based at Rivolto Air Force Base, in the north-eastern Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, province of Udine. They were formed in 1961 as an Air Force team, replacing unofficial teams that had been sponsored by various commands by the end of the 1920s^[1].

The team flies the Aermacchi MB-339-A/PAN, a two-seat fighter-trainer craft capable of 898 km/h at sea level, with nine aircraft and a solo (the highest number of aircraft of any aerobatic team in the world)^[1].

The teams official name is:

313. Gruppo Addestramento Acrobatico;

Pattuglia Acrobatica Nazionale (PAN) Frecce Tricolori.

[edit] History

The Frecce Tricolori were not the first AMI aerobatics team: military aerobatics as a group began in Campoformido, home of the 1st Wing, in the late 1920s under the supervision of Col. Rino Corso Fougier (an Italian pioneer in aerobatic group flying). Since then, except in the Second World War period, many fighter wings gave birth to demonstration teams like Cavallino Rampante (Rampant Horse), Getti Tonanti (Thundering Jets), Diavoli Rossi (Red Devils), Tigri Bianche (White Tigers) and Lanceri Neri (Black Lancers). Finally, in 1961, the Air Force General Staff decided to form a single aerobatic team, the Pattuglia Acrobatica Nazionale (National Acrobatic Patrol).

During the 2000 aerobatic season they reached 50,000 flying hours on the MB-339.^[2]

In 2005 they won the award for best exhibition at the Royal International Air Tattoo at Fairford, England (a major military airshow) and they have obtained, for the first time for a non-Russian unit, the Russian Silver Medal for Aeronautical Merit.^[3]^[4] On 8 September 2007 the Frecce Tricolori took part at the funeral of Luciano Pavarotti in Modena and honoured him with a fly-past leaving green-white-red smoke trails^[5].

[edit] Incidents

On August 28, 1988, in the Ramstein airshow disaster, 70 people lost their lives due to the mid-air collision of three Frecce Tricolori jets. The burning jets broke up and crashed, including one that careened into a crowd of spectators.