BAGOTVILLE (Quebec) – The Frecce Tricolori have returned to sail the sky above Canada: the National Acrobatic Team (in Italian: Pattuglia Acrobatica Nazionale – PAN), which left last 10 June from the Rivolto air base (Udine, Italy), after a transfer that lasted over four days and which scheduled for several technical stops in the Netherlands, Scotland, Iceland and Greenland, landed in Bagotville, Quebec, where on 22 June it will take part in the celebrations for the hundredth anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
“An occasion – they explain from the Italian Air Force – to renew the friendship between the two air forces which share a centenary history made up of common traditions and values” (in the photo below, the pilots of the Italian Arrows together with the soldiers of the Arctic Command base – all the pics are by Aeronautica Militare Italiana).
Bagotville will be the first stop on the highly anticipated 2024 North America Tour of the Frecce Tricolori, which will see the ten “ponies” of the Air Force – as the PAN pilots are called – perform until the end of August in various cities in Canada and of the United States, bringing the Tricolor and Italian excellence overseas through a busy program of overflights and performances during air shows.
A return overseas, of the National Acrobatic Team, awaited for over thirty years: the last experience dates back to the “Columbus92” tour, on the occasion of the celebrations for the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, in 1992.
“We are really excited to return after many years to these places where there is a large Italian community which lives and feels the nostalgia of ‘Italianness’ every day: the Frecce Tricolori will be able to excite this people with their evolutions and the longest Tricolor in the world, in the most iconic places in North America. Through the Frecce Tricolori, we want to bring the values and identity of an Armed Force of men and women who every day, with cohesion, team spirit, professionalism, dedication and sacrifice, contribute to the safety of the skies”, declared the Chief of Italian Air Force General Staff, air team general Luca Goretti.
The tour will be a unique opportunity for thousands of fans of the aeronautical world overseas to admire the capabilities of the Frecce Tricolori, an excellence also sealed by the Guinness World Record as the military aerobatic team that performs with the most aircraft (10 in total).
After the show in Bagotville, the tour will continue with stops in New York, Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles and other US and Canadian locations where the Frecce Tricolori will give the audience many more emotions, returning to hang out the longest Tricolor in the world as testimony of the professionalism and passion that have always distinguished the Air Force and the Frecce Tricolori.
The North American Tour will conclude at the end of August with one final exciting performance in Ocean City, Worcester County, Maryland (the complete programme, with places and dates, is in the image below: further info here).
Today, with a tweet on X (here below), The Royal Canadian Air Force welcomed the Frecce Tricolori: “We are thrilled to welcome the Italian demo team, Frecce Tricolori, to Canada to join us in celebrating #RCAF100! Want to see the Frecce Tricolori in action? Visit the airshows at Bagotville (22-23 Jun), Trenton (29-30 Jun) or Cold Lake (20-21 Jul)!”
