Bladt’s Hunters

The team was formed in 1957 by Major Robert Bladt of the 7th Fighter Wing at Chièvres, following the disbandment of an earlier Belgian team, and gave its first public display at Valenciennes in France on 12 June 1957 in camouflaged Hawker Hunters. By 1959 it was flying nine aircraft and on occasion far larger formations. In 1960, to save money, it was cut to four Hunters with two spares, painted overall bright red, and took the name Red Devils. Its last Hunter display was on 23 June 1963, the year the 7th Wing was disbanded.

The Magister years

The Red Devils returned in 1965 with seven Fouga CM.170R Magister jet trainers, which inherited the overall red scheme and carried red, yellow and black smoke. Their first display in the new aircraft was at Brustem on 27 June 1965. In the early 1970s rising fuel costs cut the team to two aircraft in 1972 and three in 1973, before it recovered to six aircraft in 1974. In 1977 the Belgian Air Force high command halted the team, for budget reasons according to MILAVIA, and the team did not fly again for more than three decades.

Hardship Red to Red Devils

From 2008 or 2009, instructors of the 1st Wing at Beauvechain flew a four-ship of SIAI-Marchetti SF.260M basic trainers as Hardship Red. In 2011, for the 65th anniversary of the Belgian Air Force, the team took back the Red Devils name, received a red and white livery with the Belgian flag and permission to display abroad, re-forming as a four-ship in April 2011. It remained a four-aircraft piston team, a modest successor to the jet formations of the 1950s and 1960s but a familiar sight across European shows for more than a decade.

Waiting for a new trainer

The Red Devils flew their last display at the Sanicole International Airshow in September 2024. In April 2025 the Air and Space Component announced that the team was temporarily stood down, because the SF.260s were approaching the end of their service life and the training of new aircrew had to take priority. The service said the team would return once a replacement trainer was chosen; the candidates reported were the Pilatus PC-7 Mk X, Grob G 120TP, Beechcraft T-6 Texan II and Diamond Dart 550.