Fliegerstaffel 18
The Fliegerstaffel 18 "Panthers" is a squadron of the Swiss Air Force equipped with F / A-18 fighter planes , which belongs to the professional aviation corps and is subordinate to the Fliegergeschwader 14. Their home base is the Payerne military airfield . Fliegerstaffel 18 has a black panther on a green background as its coat of arms .
history
In 1925 the Fliegerkompanie 18 was founded, from 1928 to 1941 flight operations with Dewoitine D-27. From 1941 to 1949 flight operations with Morane D-3800. In 1945 it was renamed Fliegerstaffel 18. From 1949 to 1956 equipped with P-51 Mustang. First operation with jet jets De Havilland DH.112 Venom from 1957 to 1973. From 1973 to 1975 Hawker Hunter from the Alpnach military airfield . From 1975 onwards, Payerne Air Base is the new home base of Fliegerstaffel 18.
From 1978 to 1997 the F-5 Tigers operated from Payerne. In 1998 Fliegerstaffel 18 received the F / A-18 Hornet as the second squadron (after Fliegerstaffel 17). At the end of 2005, the surveillance squadron was disbanded and the personnel, including Fliegerstaffel 18, were transferred to the professional aviation corps . In 2010, Fliegerstaffel 18 received its relay aircraft with the J-50 18 with relay painting on the vertical stabilizers.
In normal flight operations, the J-5018 is assigned priority to the squadron commander, but is also flown by other pilots. If the current F / A-18 Hornet Solo Display pilot is from Season 18, he will fly the demonstration with the J-5018 if possible. The Fliegerstaffel 18 carries out its orders in peacetime with Fliegergeschwader 11 (Fl Geschw 11) from the Payerne military airfield . Tactically, Fl St 18, together with Fliegerstaffel 19, belongs to Fliegergeschwader 14 (Fl Geschw 14), which belongs to Flugplatz Kommando 14 (Flpl Kdo 14) and is stationed at Sion Airport.
Although the NATO Tigermeet is reserved for squadrons with a tiger emblem , Fliegerstaffel 18 was invited as a guest squadron due to the fact that they have a big cat as a squadron badge and was able to take part in the Tigermeet together with Fliegerstaffel 11.
The chief test pilot Armasuisse , Lieutenant Colonel Bernhard Berset is in military service F / A-18 pilot in the squadron 18. The first Kampfjetpilotion the Swiss Air Force and the world's first female Pilatus PC-21 pilot, Fanny Chollet is divided also in the squadron 18th
Planes
- Dewoitine D-27
- Morane D-3800
- P-51 Mustang
- de Havilland DH.112 Venom
- Hawker Hunter
- Northrop F-5
- F / A-18
Web links
- Official DDPS page of Fliegerstaffel 18 ( Memento from May 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
