Thunder Tigers Gallery

Thunder Tigers present aircraft

AT-3 Tz-Chiang (from 1988)

Thunder Tigers old planes

F-86 Dagger (from 1959-67)

F-5 (from 1967-88)

Thunder Tigers

The "Thunder Tigers" are the Republic of China (Taiwan) Air Force aerobatic display team flying seven AT-3 Tz-Chiang jet aircraft. Their planes are painted in white, blue and red colors and use similar color smoke generators. All the team's pilots are drawn from the Air Force Academy in Tianan where the team is also based.

History

The aerobatic display team of Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF) in Taiwan was first formed in 1953 in Tianan Air Base, under the name "Thunder Tigers Technical Flying Corps". On August 14, 1954, they performed their first public display at the Air Force Celebration Day, flying with four F-84G Thunderbird aircraft (this was the type's name in Taiwanese).
On 6 June 1956, they received the title of "Flight Technical Corps of China Air Force Thunder Tigers" and one year later began to fly with nine formation aircraft.
The foreign debut of the team was on 15 December 1957 during the Phillippines International Air Show at Manila Airport, when Thunder Tigers were one of the show highlights.
In 1959, Thunder Tigers began to fly with 11 F-86 "Daggers" (Taiwanese name). Later in April the team was invited to World Congress of Flight at Nellis AFB, USA, where Thunder Tigers pilots flew nine F-86F Sabres borrowed from USAF Williams AFB, AZ. The borrowed Sabre aircraft were painted in Republic of China (Taiwan) Air Force marks. In USA the team performed another three demonstrations.
In 1967, the team converted to F-5A Freedom Fighters. These were then replaced in 1975 with F-5E "Chung Cheng" (Taiwanese name) fighters.
On November 1, 1988, the "Thunder Tigers" transitioned to the new Taiwanese-built AT-3 jet training plane. At this time, the pilots of the team were drawn from instructors of the Air Force Academy in Tianan. Initially they flew just six planes, but the following year the team increased to its present count of seven aircraft. The "Thunder Tigers" then received their current paint scheme in white, blue and red colors and begin to use similar colors for the smoke generators.
On June 27, 1997, during four-ship barrel roll on a training flight at Kang Shan Air Base, the leader of the team crashed and died.

Turkish Stars

The “Turkish Stars” (Turk Yildizlari ) are the current Turkish Air Force aerobatic display team flying six NF-5A and two NF-5B aircraft. One of the NF-5As is a spare.
The team's airplanes are painted in national white and red colors and also use the same color smoke generators. The “Turkish Stars” have a dedicated support C-160 Transall transport. The team's home base is Konya Air Base.

History

The “Turkish Stars” aerobatic display team was established on 7 November 1992 from the 132nd squadron of the 3rd Main Jet Base Command in Konya. On January 11, 1993, the team received its present name and their first demonstration was in 1994 at Diyarbekir.
Team's planes were painted in white and red, and originally the name and a bas-relief of the Turkish national hero Kemal Ataturk was painted on the bottom.
In the beginning, the team began flying with seven NF-5s, but later, in 2001, they became a unique eight-ship supersonic jet demonstration team. A few years later they back to seven-ship aircraft airshow.
The “Turkish Stars” had a C-130 Hercules support cargo plane, painted in team colors, which was eventually replaced by a C-160 Transall in 2008.