From Bumbling Bees to Silver Falcons

The South African Air Force’s display team began in 1953 as the Bumbling Bees, a four-ship flying the Harvard and then the de Havilland Vampire, which disbanded in the late 1950s. The arrival of the Aermacchi MB-326 Impala in 1966 revived it under Colonel Chris Prins at Langebaanweg, and a more bilingual name followed: as the Silver Falcons, or Silwer Valke, the team first displayed in November 1967 at the opening of the Atlas Aircraft Corporation.

The Impala years

In 1986, under Commandant Dave Knoesen, the team grew to five aircraft to add a solo, and the Impalas were painted orange, white and blue after the national flag of the time. When Impala training moved to Hoedspruit in the early 1990s the team followed, and after 1994 the jets were repainted in Air Force blues and white. Two accidents marked the Impala era: in April 1988 Captain Kobus Griesel ejected after an engine fire during a display at Franschhoek, and on 2 October 1993 Captain Charlie Rudnick was killed at Lanseria when his Impala’s right wing separated during a low-level solo sequence.

Astras at Langebaanweg

In 1998 the team returned to Langebaanweg on the Pilatus PC-7 Mk II Astra, the Air Force’s basic trainer, reduced to four aircraft in the standard red and white fleet scheme. In 2008 six Astras were repainted blue and white with donated paint and the team returned to a five-ship, first showing the livery at the Africa Aerospace and Defence exhibition at Ysterplaat that September. The pilots are serving instructors at the Central Flying School; in 2011 Captain Heybrech van Niekerk became the first female member.

Budget pauses and a return

Budget cuts, PC-7 engine-mount corrosion and COVID-19 kept the team grounded from 2020: a leaked signal said it could not be supported, though the Air Force insisted it was “not the end”. A reconstituted team returned for the AAD air show at Waterkloof in September 2022, a month after two of its Astras touched in a mid-air incident during formation training. Silver Falcons Astras have since flown at the Ysterplaat show in October 2024 and the SAAF Museum air shows.