Golden Hawks

History

In 1959, the Royal Canadian Air Force celebrated its 35th anniversary along with 50 years of powered aviation in Canada. To mark that special occasion, a team known as the "Golden Hawks" were created and were first equipped with 6 Canadair Sabre Mk.5 aircraft and later with the Mk.6 version. The airplanes were distinctively painted in overall gold with a stylized red and white hawk emblem painted on each side of the fuselage. In 1960, with the growing popularity of the "Golden Hawks", their pilots received new Air Force blue flying suits and red flying jackets that became their trademark along with a new team patch.
The "Golden Hawks" airshow typically lasted for 25 minutes. In spite of having been originally created for only one year, the team actually remained in existence until Feb 7, 1964, when they were finally disbanded for financial reasons. In total, they gave 317 air demonstrations and they also became the first RCAF display team to visit the USA in 1960.
The team also had two support aircraft, a Canadair-produced CT-133 Silver Star (a license-built version of the T-33 Shooting Star), which was also painted in team's colors.

Gallery

Canadair Sabre Mk.5

Canadair CT-133 Silver Star