Here’s the list of airshows where you will be able to watch the display of Italian Air Force display team during their North American tour.
As already reported in detail, in 2024, the Frecce Tricolori display team will visit U.S. and Canada for the first North American tour in more than 30 years. The tour will bring the Italian Air Force jets to Canada, where RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) celebrates its 100th anniversary and then over the U.S, attending airshows on both the East and West Coast.
While some of the airshows where the 10 jets of the Frecce Tricolori have been invited were already known, on Jan. 1, 2024, the team officially disclosed the full tour details, with all the dates of their 2-month trip across North America.
From their homebase at Rivolto Air Base, in northeastern Italy, the team will fly to Canada, for the Bagotville International Air Show on June 22 -23, 2024. The following weekend, June 29-30, they will be in Trenton, Canada. From there, their next display will take place in Los Angeles, on July 06-07. Then, the team will be on July 13-14 at Sacramento and, one week later, on July 20-21, again in Canada, at Cold Lake, for the local airshow.
The next airshow will be in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 27-28; then, the Frecce Tricolori will be in Rochester, New York, on August 03-04. The following weekend, August 10-11, the team will be in New York City, and on August 21, in Norfolk, Virginia. The tour finale will be in Ocean City, Maryland, on August 24-25, 2024.
There are several reasons why it’s worth attending an airshow and watch the display of the Italian Air Force Frecce Tricolori team: with its 10 Italian built aircraft – the MB-339A/PAN – the “Frecce” (Italian for “Arrows”) – form one of the world’s most prestigious aerobatic teams and the one to hold the Guinness World record for the most jet aircraft in a military aerobatic display team.
Another feature that makes the Frecce unique is the fact that the whole display is executed in sight of the public. Separations, transformations and rejoins are always performed in front of the spectators. Another peculiar characteristic of the team is the fact that the Frecce separate into two formations (one flight of 5 and another of 4 aircraft) which then fly an opposition pass and subsequently rejoin in less than 2 minutes! Rejoin time is a factor that can influence deeply a flying display.
Another trademark of the team is the Downward Bomb Burst, a maneuver which has been part of the Pattuglia’s tradition since its creation, having been part of the Italian Air Force heritage for almost a century now. It is a maneuver in which the formation of 9 aircraft, starting from a high altitude, dive towards the ground and then separate into 9 individual elements which depart in different directions, finally returning for an opposition pass, at three different levels, over the same point. This is a very spectacular and complex manoeuvre, which no other team is capable of reproducing, especially due to the difficulty in opposition passing and rejoining in the very short time frames required for a display.
The other pretty unique maneuver carried out by the Frecce Tricolori is the Solo’s Lomçovak. This is a maneuver which is typically executed by propeller aircraft, and foresees a “standing roll” followed by a vertical spin, reverse and subsequent aircraft pitch down. Such a maneuver is usually “outside the flight envelope” for most jet aircraft, but the PAN’s solo can execute it in complete safety, thanks to the outstanding handling capabilities of the MB-339.
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.
