Five years after the founding of the Republic of Singapore Air Force , the squadron was set up in 1973 , named after the chess piece the black knight . This aggressive, flexible and agile chess piece should be reflected in the pilots' flying style.
In the beginning, the squadron was set up with four Hawker Hunters during the 1970s , then in the 1980s more modern F-5E Tiger II jets were used . With the new jets, people began to fly in a formation of five. At the beginning of the 1990s they switched to six A-4SU Super Skyhawk, one version of the A-4 Skyhawk .
At the beginning of the new millennium, two F-16 Fighting Falcon were added to the squadron and from then on they flew together with four A-4 Skyhawk in a formation of six aircraft. So far, this was the only aerobatic formation that flew with two different types of aircraft in one squadron.
Since 2008, the Black Knights have been newly formed and have been flying exclusively on six F-16 Fighting Falcon .
When performing, all six jets first fly over the audience in a delta formation .
A short time later, planes five and six, the two soloists, separate in order to then alternate with the other planes, which form the so-called fourship formation, to perform various aerobatic maneuvers.
Singapore
