T-37s from Sintra

Asas de Portugal was created in 1977 by order of the Air Force Chief of Staff, initially to represent Portugal at an international air display in Britain; the Portuguese Wikipedia links it to Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee and dates the order to 1976. It was the Air Force’s third aerobatic team after the Dragões and São Jorge teams of the 1950s, and it flew the Cessna T-37C from Sintra, where the Air Force’s own history places the team’s creation.

The 1990 accident

The T-37 era ended after the team’s only fatal accident, in December 1990. Accounts differ: English Wikipedia, citing the Air Force magazine Mais Alto, describes a catastrophic wing structural failure in practice on 9 December 1990 that killed team pilot José Magalhães da Costa, while the Portuguese article describes a collision over the Tagus in which one aircraft lost a wing and its pilot, José Serafim da Encarnação Pinto. Both agree that inspections found fatigue cracks across the T-37 fleet, and the team was stood down.

Alpha Jets from Beja

Revived with the Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet of Esquadra 103 at Beja, it first appeared on 27 June 1997 at the Air Force’s 45th anniversary at Sintra, but was deactivated again in 1998 for logistical reasons. According to Esquadra 103’s official history, an aerobatic pair called the Parelha da Cruz de Cristo flew from 2001 and took the name Asas de Portugal again from 2005, flying two Alpha Jets with eight support personnel.

Stood down

The team was deactivated in 2010, before that year’s show season; the Portuguese Wikipedia attributes the decision to an accident during very low-level manoeuvres. The Alpha Jet left Portuguese service in January 2018 and the Air Force has not formed a jet display team since.