Heirs of Ascua

Spain had a string of aerobatic patrols before the Águila: a T-6 Texan formation at the basic school at Matacán from 1954, T-33s at Talavera la Real from 1955, the F-86 Sabre Patrulla Ascua at Manises from 1956 and a Mirage F1 patrol at Los Llanos in 1980. The arrival of the Spanish-built CASA C-101 Aviojet as the Air Force’s jet trainer made a permanent team possible, and on 4 June 1985 five C-101s from the General Air Academy flew the first training flight from San Javier. The fuselage markings were inspired by the flame motifs of the defunct Ascua, and the team soon grew from five to seven aircraft.

Instructors, not full-timers

Unlike most national teams, the pilots were never full-time display pilots. They were flying instructors at the Academia General del Aire who combined the patrol with their teaching, for budgetary reasons. The seven positions were the leader (Águila 1), the right and left points (2 and 3), the “dog” (4) closing the diamond, the solo (5) and the right and left pairs (6 and 7), with Águila 0 as the ground-based team chief. The C-101 was a modest performer for aerobatics, and the routines of about 25 minutes, flown in high, low and flat shows, were built around formation changes, inverted loops and a trademark formation landing.

The flag in smoke

The team first used coloured smoke at Expo 92 in Seville in 1992 to draw the Spanish flag, an image that became its signature at the National Day parade in Madrid each 12 October. It flew at the Barcelona Olympics the same year, opened the 2005 Volvo Ocean Race and celebrated Spain’s 2010 World Cup win. Over 40 years it logged more than 30,000 flight hours and over 500 displays, around 170 of them abroad.

Losing Aguila 5

On 27 February 2020 Commander Eduardo Fermín Garvalena, the solo pilot, was killed when Águila 5 crashed into the sea off La Manga during training for the new season. Six months earlier a former Águila 5, Commander Francisco Marín, had died in a C-101 crash in the same area while serving as an Academy instructor. In January 2022 a C-101 with Garvalena’s name and the number 5 was installed as a memorial at the entrance to Ciudad del Aire in Alcalá de Henares.

Farewell at Aire25

The Academy replaced the C-101 with the Pilatus PC-21 for training in 2022, leaving the patrol as the last C-101 user. In January 2025 defensa.com reported that the team would stop after its anniversary because of the shortage of C-101 pilots alongside PC-21 instruction. The final display came at the Aire25 festival at San Javier on 14 and 15 June 2025, attended by King Felipe VI, and the C-101 was retired. The unit was left inactive indefinitely pending a suitable aircraft; at the October 2025 National Day parade the flag was drawn instead by the Formación Mirlo on five PC-21s.