The 50th anniversary of the F-104 Starfighter and the last year of active service within the Italian Air Force (Aeronautica Militaria Italiana - AMI) were the reason for an axcellent airshow at Pratica di Mare during the Pentecost weekend. Many enthusiast travelled the long way to the airbase that is located just south of Rome and is the home of the test facilities of the AMI.
Where? Pratica di Mare - Italy When? 30/06/2004
Besides the hardcore enthusiats (some even came from Japan to Italy) and the families and visitors that just wanted to have a nice day out a lot of former One-O-Four pilots gathered as well to celebrate their famous plane. The AMI is the only airforce that is still flying the Starfighter in the F-104S ASA-M version, nicknamed "Spillone" (great sting). However the number of airworthy jets is decreasing rapidly as October, 31st 2004 will mark the day of the last flight of the Spillone. Today about 20 F-104 are still flying and the AMI did their best to bring as many Starfighters in the air as possible during that week-end.
The Air Show
Of course not only F-104s could be seen in the air that week-end. A lot of aircraft of the AMI were performing a flight display (Eurofighter, Tornado IDS, F-16A, AMX, C-130J, Piaggio Avanti) as well as jets from other countries (Belgian and Dutch F-16, Swiss F-18 Hornet and the Patrouille Suisse) but the main focus of interest was for sure on the Starfighters: An impressive line-up of 9 Spillones on the flightline was a sight that might never be seen again. When all of them started up their engines and the good old J-79, especially of the TF-104G-M began howling, one felt being taken back in time. But that was already after the first highlight of the day: a formation fly-by consisting of a F-104, an F.3 Tornado, an F-16A ADF and a Eurofighter, representing past, present and future of the Italian Air Defence. Shortly afterwards the 9 F-104s took-off and left a smoketrail on the horizon that could still be seen quite a while afterwards. 2 fly-bys in a diamond formation followed with the 3 special colored Starfighters in the middle (the red one in Ducati colors of the 9° Stormo, he blue TF-104G of the 4° Stormo and the elegant black one). But the Starfighter had also twice the possibility to show what they can: fast fly-bys and sheer climb capability. Very interesting to see the Eurofighter display in contrast to this! To conclude the show the Frecce Tricolori took of and filled the blue Italian sky with smoke in the national colors green-white-red. As a final surprise the escorted the red 9-99 Starfighter after their display along the flightline, which zoomed off into the sky after the second fly-by. In order to perform a really fast fly-by, that caught many by surprise. Including me...
STARFIGHTERS: F-104S & TF-104G
---- ---- ---- ----
Formation Fly-Bys
---- ---- ---- ----
F-104S & Frecce Tricolori
---- ---- ---- ----
Solo Fly-Bys
---- ---- ---- ----
---- ---- ---- ----
---- ---- ---- ----
Flight Display Demonstartions of the Italian Air Force and Navy, the highlights beeing the Harriers and the Pelican:
Tornado IDS
---- ---- ---- ----
F-16A ADF & Eurofighter
---- ---- ---- ----
AMX
---- ----
Marina Harrier AV8B
---- ---- ---- ----
C-27J & C-130 Hercules
---- ---- ---- ----
Marina Merlin
---- ---- ----
Agusta A109 & HH-3F Pelikan
---- ---- ---- ----
Flight displays of visiting Air Forces and national Display Teams performing at Pratica di mare 2004, including the Frecce Tricolori:
Swiss F-18C Hornet
---- ---- ---- ----
Belgian F-16
---- ---- ---- ----
Mirage 2000 & Saab 105OE
---- ---- ---- ----
Frecce Tricolori
---- ---- ---- ----
Patrouille Suisse
---- ----
The Static Display
In addition to this fantastic flight display a lot of colourful Italian helicopters were in the static display, as well as nearly all aircraft of the AMI from the AMX to the Breguet Atlantique. Foreign participation was sparse, but included nevertheless interesting examples like Turkish RF-4E, the German s/c MiG-29 and a Hungarian Mi-17 and Mi-24. A good start of the year, many of the following shows in 2004 will have difficulties to outperform this show [besides some organisational problems, but that's another story...]!!
2019 saw the 19th edition of the Oldtimer Fliegertreffen Hahnweide. You may also call it a fly-in, a pilot meeting or a warbird airshow, and with around 400 participating aircraft it is arguably Germany’s biggest aviation event. It is an avgeek festival, and an aviation…Read More
Radom Airshow 2018 had the Polish Air Force’s 100th anniversary as a main theme. Concluding from past events the expectations were very high, and the event attracted highlights such as the Ukrainian Suchoi Su-27 Flanker or the JF-17 from Pakistan for the flying display. In…Read More
This was another plane spotting trip to Taiwan. Even though it has a vivid aviation photography scene, it’s tropical climate and a military on high alert do not make it an easy country to pursue this hobby. With the aim to photograph some aircraft of…Read More
10.000ft above Belgium the howling sound of the Lockheed Martin’s F-16AM Fighting Falcon F100 jet engine could clearly be heard. No wonder, as the Demo Pilot for the Belgian Air Force, Sr. Cpt Darte, callsign „Vador“, knows how to place his jet only meters behind…Read More
A 50th anniversary is always something special, and when a flight test centre is celebrating it you have the right ingredients for a lot of surprises. Exactly that was the case at Manching near Ingolstadt…Read More
The „Fly Navy“ event / airshow at Shuttleworth is a close cooperation between the Shuttleworth collection and the “Fly Navy Heritage Trust”. As every flying event at the remarkable airfield in Bedfordshire it focuses on vintage…Read More
Family days at the EADS site in Manching are always something special - a fact that proved once again to be true this year. According to official sources around 100.000 were attracted by this event that…Read More
In connection with the Archangel fectivities the Hellenic Air Force also opens its airbases for the interestet public every two years for three days. Before my visit to the Airshow at Tanagra I used this…Read More
Where? Pratica di Mare - Italy
Besides the hardcore enthusiats (some even came from Japan to Italy) and the families and visitors that just wanted to have a nice day out a lot of former One-O-Four pilots gathered as well to celebrate their famous plane.
Of course not only F-104s could be seen in the air that week-end. A lot of aircraft of the AMI were performing a flight display (Eurofighter, Tornado IDS, F-16A, AMX, C-130J, Piaggio Avanti) as well as jets from other countries (Belgian and Dutch F-16, Swiss F-18 Hornet and the Patrouille Suisse) but the main focus of interest was for sure on the Starfighters:
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
In addition to this fantastic flight display a lot of colourful Italian helicopters were in the static display, as well as nearly all aircraft of the AMI from the AMX to the Breguet Atlantique. Foreign participation was sparse, but included nevertheless interesting examples like Turkish RF-4E, the German s/c MiG-29 and a Hungarian Mi-17 and Mi-24.
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
---- 
