The Aviation Magazine 51 July-August 2017 | Page 62
On February 10th, the commander of the Flight School at Salon‐de‐Provence, sent a telegram to the Minster
of Defence, that they will assume the name for their own “Patrouille de l'École de l'air ” (the successor to the
Patrouille d’Etampes) to save the heritage and the name of Patrouille de France. Patrouille de l'École de
l'air was operating the more economical CM Fouga Magister jet trainers since 1957. As of that date onwards
the Patrouille de France is based out of Air Base Salon‐de‐Provence. The last demonstration with the Fouga
Magister was on September 16, 1980, at the Meeting of Salon‐de‐Provence. The total number of team air‐
craft varied from six to eleven over the years, but it was finalized at eight.
2017 US Tour patch of the Patrouille de France
In 1981, Patrouille de France received the brand new Dassault‐Dornier Alpha Jet training aircraft. Built by the
French/German consortium. Initially, the team received seven airplanes and then in 1982, the team was ex‐
panded with an additional aircraft. Ever since 1982, Patrouille de France has been flying in their familiar
eight ship formation.