Patrulla Ascua was the first aerobatic team founded in Spain in 1956 by initiative of four fighter pilots framed within Ala 1 based at Manises AFB, Valencia.The first pilots of the team had been trained in the Bryan AFB, Texas, to serve as instructors for the rest of the F-86 Sabre’s pilots within Spanish Air Force.Until September of 1958, the team did not have an assigned name, reason why it was announced in the exhibitions like “Manises aerobatic team” or “Spanish Patrol” among others.The “Patrulla Ascua” official name was put up to honor a team’s captain whose indicative radio was “Ascua”, who suffered a fatal accident in September 1958 during a training flight.The team made about 40 air shows in its little more than six years of existence, demonstrating a high technical level and giving the public great doses of emotion during their performances.The most spectacular maneuver of their performances was known as “the bomb”, and consisted of a dive maintaining the formation, followed by a rapid ascent to finally open up in a fan releasing smoke and firing blank bursts with the six internal machine guns.
The danger of “the bomb” is clear after the fatal accident suffered by Captain Jaime Berriatua, when trying to ascend after the initial dive to land, he failed, crashing the aircraft to the ground.In 1962, Patrulla Ascua was the World’s first aerobatics team to make a six aircrafts (3 vs 3) crossing in the air. The team started with 4 aircrafts but in 1961 the shows were made with 5. However, from 1962 onwards, all the performances were made with 6 aircrafts.
