The Patrulla Águila was formed at the Academia General del Aire in 1985, originally to demonstrate the formation-aerobatic qualities of the then-new C-101. Its pilots were instructors from the academy’s 793 Escuadrón, flying the same aircraft their students flew. The team made its first public display in June 1985 with five aircraft and grew to seven in 1988.

The Patrulla’s signature became the smoke: from 12 October 1992, at Seville, the team trailed the red and yellow of the Spanish flag, a sight that became a fixture of national celebrations and European air shows. Over four decades it flew more than 500 displays, around 170 of them abroad, and logged some 30,000 flight hours on the C-101.

The team flew its final C-101 displays at San Javier on 14 and 15 June 2025, during its 40th-anniversary celebrations. Its commander, Lieutenant Colonel José Javier Sánchez Martín, confirmed that the Patrulla would continue on the Pilatus PC-21. Former team aircraft are now preserved, including E.25-23, which arrived at the Museo del Aire in March 2019.

Chile was the C-101’s most ambitious customer. The Fuerza Aérea de Chile first bought four complete trainers and kits for eight more, assembled locally by ENAER, as the T-36 Halcón. It then ordered the dedicated attack C-101CC as the A-36 Halcón: only the prototype was built in Spain, with 22 production aircraft built by ENAER in Chile.

The A-36 gave Chile a cheap, long-range light strike aircraft. A radar-equipped maritime strike variant carrying the BAe Sea Eagle anti-ship missile was flown in prototype form in 1992, and in the mid-1990s ENAER and SAGEM upgraded the fleet with a new navigation and attack system, HUD and HOTAS controls; the upgraded aircraft became known as the A-36 Toquí. ENAER was still carrying out deep maintenance on the Iquique-based A-36 fleet in 2021, decades after the first deliveries, making Chile one of the last active C-101 operators.

• C-101EB-01 (E.25 Mirlo): basic and advanced trainer for Spain; 88 ordered.
• C-101BB-02: armed trainer with uprated engine; Honduras (4) and Chile (T-36 Halcón).
• C-101CC-02: dedicated light-attack version with more thrust and a military power reserve; Chile’s A-36 Halcón, 22 built by ENAER.
• C-101CC-04: attack version for Jordan; 16 delivered.
• C-101DD: 1985 development with HUD, HOTAS, radar warning receiver and Maverick capability; demonstrated but not produced.

The C-101’s stepped tandem cockpit put the instructor high behind the student, an arrangement that let one teacher watch both the student and the world outside. Both crew sit on ejection seats. The original analogue panel was deliberately simple for basic training; the 1990–1992 Spanish upgrade improved navigation and weapons systems, while the Chilean Toquí upgrade added a HUD and HOTAS controls of the kind students would meet on frontline fighters.

• Spain: 88 E.25 Mirlo; Academia General del Aire 1980–2022, Patrulla Águila 1985–2025.
• Chile: T-36 and A-36 Halcón, many built by ENAER; still in service.
• Honduras: 4 C-101BB.
• Jordan: 16 C-101CC-04, retired in 2018.

CASA’s choice of the TFE731 was an economic decision. A turbofan burns markedly less fuel than the turbojets in contemporary trainers, which let the C-101 fly long sorties and self-deploy to the Canary Islands, as the original Spanish requirement demanded. Spain’s 2020 decision to replace it with 24 PC-21s cost more than €200 million, around €8.5 million per aircraft, which shows how cheaply the old Mirlo had been doing the job. Treat any per-hour figure as an estimate.