Frecce Tricolori: Italy’s ten-aircraft aerobatic team

Ten blue jets sweep over the runway in tight formation, then the group breaks apart, and for a few seconds the sky is full of smoke. At the end of the display, a trail miles long in green, white and red stretches over the crowd while Pavarotti sings “Nessun dorma” from the loudspeakers. The Frecce Tricolori – “tricolor arrows” in English – have been Italy’s national aerobatic team since 1961 and, with nine aircraft in formation plus a soloist, the largest of their kind. Here you learn where the team comes from, what it flies, which maneuvers you should know and how best to photograph it.

Frecce Tricolori: the short answer

The Frecce Tricolori are the Pattuglia Acrobatica Nazionale (PAN), the national aerobatic team of the Italian air force, the Aeronautica Militare. The unit’s official name is 313° Gruppo Addestramento Acrobatico. It was established on March 1, 1961 and is based at Rivolto military airfield in the province of Udine in Friuli. In the display, nine jets fly in formation plus a soloist, since 1982 on the Aermacchi MB-339 in the PAN aerobatic version. Since September 2024, it has been settled that the team is switching to the Leonardo M-346.

From wing teams to a national team

In the 1950s, Italy did not have one aerobatic team but several. Every larger air force unit fielded its own team, often changing from year to year. The best-known names:

Team	Period	Aircraft	Notable point
Cavallino Rampante	from 1950	de Havilland Vampire, later F-86E Sabre	the team’s reserve formed the core of the new team in 1961
Getti Tonanti	1953–1956, 1959–1960	Republic F-84G, later F-84F	F-84F with Olympic rings for the Rome Games in 1960
Tigri Bianche	1953–1956	F-84G Thunderjet	team of the 51st Wing
Diavoli Rossi	1957–1959	F-84F Thunderstreak	set up at Ghedi, led by Mario Squarcina
Lanceri Neri	1957–1959	Canadair Sabre	team of the 2nd Air Brigade

At the end of the 1950s, the air force decided to pool its forces in a permanent team that does nothing but aerobatics. The first commander was Mario Squarcina, who had previously led the Diavoli Rossi. Some maneuvers that the Frecce still show today go back to this period – for example the “Bomba,” in which the formation fans out in different directions at the top of a loop.

For its first years, the new team flew the North American F-86 Sabre in the F-86E version. The colored smoke that defines the team to this day was added as early as the 1960s. The predecessor types of the wing teams, including the de Havilland Vampire, are mostly found in museums today.

The aircraft: Sabre, G.91, MB-339 and M-346

In over 60 years, the team has flown only three aircraft types. The switch to the fourth is under way now.

Aircraft	Period with the PAN	Propulsion	What you can remember
North American F-86E Sabre	1961–1963	single-engine jet	swept wing, nose intake, postwar US type
Fiat G.91PAN	1964–1981	single-engine jet	Italian light fighter, in service for almost two decades
Aermacchi MB-339PAN	since 1982	single-engine jet	jet trainer with stepped tandem canopy, no tip tanks
Leonardo M-346 Master	being delivered, presented 2024	twinjet	fly-by-wire, much more thrust, new livery

Aermacchi MB-339PAN

The Aermacchi MB-339 is actually a trainer on which generations of Italian military pilots were trained. The PAN aerobatic version differs outwardly mainly in the missing tanks at the wingtips and the smoke system. You can recognize the type by the long, downward-sloping nose, the stepped canopy with a raised rear seat and the straight, low-set wing. The livery is known to every fan: lots of blue, plus a band in the national colors.

Interesting for spotters: the MB-339PAN is very forgiving in slow flight with flaps, landing gear and air brakes extended. The team makes use of exactly that for maneuvers in which the jets pass close to the crowd in a “dirty” configuration. For you, that means long exposure windows, little motion blur and good chances of sharp detail shots.

Leonardo M-346

On September 12, 2024, the Aeronautica Militare presented the Leonardo M-346 in a new aerobatic livery as the team’s next aircraft. Originally, the single-engine M-345 had been planned as the successor; the air force dropped this plan. The M-346 is built by Leonardo in Venegono near Varese and is a twinjet. At airshows, more thrust mainly means: different radii, different speeds, a different sound. How fast the changeover is completed depends on deliveries and conversion training. As of October 2026, the advice is: check before every show which type is announced.

How a display runs

A Frecce display is choreographed down to the last detail. The positions in the formation carry radio callsigns: “Pony” with numbers, and the soloist flies as a separate position. Sometimes an eleventh aircraft is along, with the supervisor for aerobatic training in the seat.

The team has three programs, between which it chooses depending on the cloud base and terrain:

• High program: With good visibility and a high cloud base, the formation flies full loops and vertical maneuvers.
• Low program: With a lower cloud base, vertical maneuvers such as the loop and Bomba are dropped, and the jets stay closer to the ground.
• Flat program: With very low cloud, the team mainly shows formation passes at low altitude.

For you as a photographer, that means the weather decides not only the light but also what you get to see at all. The flat program offers less spectacle, but often closer passes.

Maneuvers you should know

• Bomba: The formation pulls into a loop and fans out in different directions at the highest point. With white smoke, the result in the sky looks like an explosion.
• Cardioide: The formation climbs vertically in front of the crowd with white smoke, splits into two groups that swing away in opposite directions and cross low in front of the spectators – the smoke draws a heart in the process.
• Arizona: The formation climbs vertically, the groups separate and cross in front of the crowd. The soloist then follows the smoke trail.
• Scintilla tricolore: From a diamond formation, the jets break out in several directions with colored smoke – a spark in the national colors. In 2025, the team dedicated the maneuver to the late fashion designer Giorgio Armani.
• Alona: The formation approaches close and slow with flaps and landing gear extended, then switches on the colored smoke and climbs away in a turn. In calm air, the trail stays in place for minutes.
• The finale: The full formation draws a very long trail in green, white and red across the sky. “Nessun dorma” from Puccini’s Turandot plays, sung by Luciano Pavarotti. At his funeral in Modena in 2007, the team flew a pass with smoke in the national colors.

The smoke is made by the jets injecting paraffin oil into the hot exhaust stream. Pigments are mixed in for the colors, and they are considered not harmful to the environment.

The pilots

Only those who are already experienced military pilots join the team. Applicants need more than 1,000 flight hours, and as a rule only one or two new pilots are selected per year. New pilots first train in positions of their own before moving into the display formation. That also explains why the Frecce fly so consistently: a large part of the team stays the same from season to season, with only individual positions changing.

Ramstein 1988 and the consequences

The team’s darkest day is August 28, 1988. At the air show at the US Air Base Ramstein in the Palatinate, three Frecce Tricolori aircraft collided during a maneuver. One of them crashed, burning, into the crowd of spectators. 67 spectators and three pilots died, and hundreds of people were seriously injured. It is still one of the worst airshow disasters in history.

The consequences reach far: in Germany, military aerobatic displays were taboo for a long time afterward, and across Europe the distances between the display line and the crowd as well as the rules for maneuvers toward the spectators were tightened. The background and what changed afterward is described in the article The 1988 Ramstein air show disaster.

The team was not spared accidents afterward either. In September 2023, a Frecce MB-339 crashed shortly after takeoff near Turin-Caselle airport following an engine problem; on the ground, a five-year-old girl was killed. Events like these are a reason why display zones are strictly cordoned off – and why you should follow the organizers’ instructions.

Where you see the Frecce Tricolori

The team flies its season roughly from late spring into autumn. The Aeronautica Militare publishes the schedule on its website; changes during the season are normal. The main focal points:

• Airshows in Italy: Many appearances take place in coastal towns, where the team flies over the sea and the crowd stands on the beach. That makes for photos with water instead of a fence in the foreground.
• Military occasions: On the National Day on June 2, the Frecce traditionally fly over Rome with smoke in the national colors.
• Appearances abroad: The team is a regular guest at big European shows, for example at the Royal International Air Tattoo in Fairford, where it was named best display in 2005, or at AIRPOWER in Zeltweg. Whether it takes part in a given year is decided with the respective program.

Around Rivolto itself, note that it is an active military airfield. What is allowed at the fence there and what is not, you should clarify beforehand – the general rules are summarized in the guide Photographing military airfields. For getting to Friuli, Venice Airport is a good choice.

If you want to experience the history of the Italian air force on the ground, you will find earlier aircraft types at the Museo Storico dell’Aeronautica Militare in Vigna di Valle on Lake Bracciano; Volandia at Milan Malpensa Airport also shows Italian aviation history.

Frecce Tricolori compared

How do the Italians compare to the other big jet teams in Europe? An overview of the teams with their own article:

Team	Country	Aircraft	Jets in the display
Frecce Tricolori	Italy	MB-339PAN, switching to M-346	9 + soloist
Red Arrows	United Kingdom	BAE Hawk T1	9
Patrouille de France	France	Dassault Alpha Jet	8
Patrouille Suisse	Switzerland	Northrop F-5E Tiger II	6

The Frecce stand out mainly through the size of the formation and the independent soloist, who flies separate maneuvers between the group’s maneuvers. The overview Aerobatic teams of Europe compares all teams in detail.

Photographing the Frecce: how to get it right

An aerobatic team is a different subject from an airliner on approach. The jets move in all directions, the formation fills large parts of the sky and the smoke constantly changes the picture. You find general tips on camera and settings in Photographing airshows; for the Frecce, a few special points come on top.

Conclusion

Since 1961, the Frecce Tricolori have been the flying showpiece of the Italian air force. With nine jets in formation and a soloist, they put more aircraft in the sky than any other major team, and their finale with smoke in the national colors and Pavarotti’s “Nessun dorma” is among the best-known moments of any airshow. Ramstein 1988 remains a part of their history that changed the airshow world. For spotters, the coming years are especially exciting: with the switch from the MB-339PAN to the M-346, an era that lasted over four decades is ending.