Fliegerstaffel 6
The Fliegerstaffel 6 is a militia Fliegerstaffel of the Swiss Air Force equipped with Northrop F-5 E combat aircraft and, together with the Fliegerstaffel 17 , is subordinate to the Fliegergeschwader 11. Their home base is the Payerne military airfield . The Fliegerstaffel 6 has had a marching duck with a proudly swollen chest and a halberd as its coat of arms since 1940. In addition, the relay coat of arms bears the motto “Jusqu'au bout”, which means something like “until the bitter end”. Before this badge, it was first a six-pointed star with a witch on her flying broom.
history
In 1925 the Fliegerkompanie 6 was founded, equipped with Dewoitine D1 + , Dewoitine D9 and the Comte AC-1 . From 1939 the company was in use with Dewoitine D-27 . From 1939 to 1946 the Fliegerkompanie 6 used the Messerschmitt Me 109 aircraft from the Zweisimmen military airfield . Leutnant Hans Thurnheer was a squadron 6 pilot who was the first Swiss fighter pilot to fire at the enemy: On May 10, 1940, he was involved in a firefight with a Heinkel He-111 , which defied the request to land and opened fire. After Lieutenant Thurnheer shot at the He-111, it left Swiss airspace. Squadron 6 was involved in aerial battles over the Jura in June 1940 and scored 2.5 confirmed kills (1.5 He-111 and one Bf-110 ).
In 1945 it was renamed Fliegerstaffel 6. After the Second World War , the squadron received D-3800 and D-3801 Morane in 1947 . These flew only a short time in the squadron 6. From 1951 the squadron flew with De Havilland DH.100 Vampire as one of the first front squadrons on jets. The Vampires remained with Squadron 6 until 1959. From 1960 to 1978, the Vampire's successor, the further developed De Havilland DH.112 Venom, was in use with Squadron 6. In 1978 he was retrained to the Hawker Hunter at the Sion military airfield .
In 1983 the training to the F-5 Tiger took place and the Payerne military airfield became the new home base. The Fliegerstaffel 6 is a spleen pilot squadron, which means that all pilots fulfill their military service in the squadron and otherwise work in a wide variety of professions that do not necessarily have to have a connection with aviation. The pilots of the squadron come from the French-speaking cantons of Switzerland. The Fliegerstaffel 6 does not have any aircraft that are specifically assigned to it; all F-5s of the Swiss Air Force are used jointly by all squadrons. However, the Fliegerstaffel 6, like the Fliegerstaffel 8, 11, 17, 18 and 19, received the F-5E J-3033, a machine that has a squadron-related vertical tail painting.
The season has recently been given the nickname "Ducks" and celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2015, for which a special season badge was created. The air police service and the identification of foreign aircraft is one of the main tasks of Fliegerstaffel 6. The future of the unit, as with the other two F-5 militia squadrons, Fliegerstaffel 8 and Fliegerstaffel 19 , is uncertain. It is planned to introduce a successor model for the F-5 and F / A-18 for service in the Swiss Air Force by 2025. It is not yet clear how many squadrons will then exist and in what form they will then be organized. With the procurement of modern, complex combat aircraft, it is questionable whether these could be used effectively by militia pilots and they will foreseeably have to be replaced by professional military pilots.
Planes
- Dewoitine D1 +
- Dewoitine D9
- Comte AC1
- Dewoitine D-27
- Morane D-3800
- Morane D-3801
- Messerschmitt Bf 109 .
- De Havilland DH.100 vampires
- de Havilland DH.112 Venom
- Hawker Hunter
- Northrop F-5
Web links
- Official DDPS page of Fliegerstaffel 6 ( Memento from April 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- Skynews report on Fliegerstaffel 6 ( Memento from February 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- PDF in French about the history of Fliegerstaffel 6 ( Memento from March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- External picture of the stacking machine J-3033
