Named over Algiers

French formation aerobatics date from 1931, but the name came on 17 May 1953, when four Republic F-84G Thunderjets of the 3rd Fighter Wing from Reims flew at Maison-Blanche near Algiers and the commentator Jacques Nœtinger called them the “Patrouille de France”. The air force command ratified the name on 14 September 1953. In its early years the title passed between wing teams, and the present unit dates from 1964, when it took over from the Air Force Academy team at Salon-de-Provence.

Five aircraft eras

The team flew the Thunderjet until 1954, the Dassault Ouragan until 1957 and the Mystère IV until 1964. The Fouga Magister followed, growing from six to eleven aircraft by 1972. The Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet arrived in 1981, seven at first and eight from 1982; it remains the team’s aircraft and is due to leave service around 2035, with no successor named.

Salon-de-Provence and the Athos callsign

Salon-de-Provence, home of the air force academy, has hosted the team throughout the Alpha Jet era. Its pilots fly under the callsign Athos and display with eight aircraft in season, nine for the Bastille Day parade on the Champs-Élysées; the unit counts more than sixty personnel. On 25 November 2009 Commandant Virginie Guyot became leader, the first woman to command a national aerobatic team.

The cost of close formation

Formation flying at two or three metres has cost lives. French Wikipedia counts thirteen Patrouille pilots killed since 1953, among them Commandant Jean-Serge Longy and Adjudant-chef Jacques Pourchelle, who died when two Magisters collided at Salon on 30 January 1980, and Capitaine Daniel Marchand in 2002. On 25 March 2025 two Alpha Jets collided during a rehearsal near Saint-Dizier; both pilots and a passenger ejected, and one struck an industrial silo without ground casualties.

Liberty 250 and the Alpha Jet’s last decade

The team still flew its 2025 season, chronicled in the documentary Athos – au cœur de la Patrouille de France, released in February 2026. In June 2026 it toured the US East Coast for the Liberté 250 mission, flying nine Alpha Jets past the Statue of Liberty on 9 June to mark 250 years of American independence, forty years after its first flypast over New York in 1986.