Instructors’ formation

Formation display flying in the Finnish Air Force goes back before the Second World War, when ten Gloster Gamecock biplanes flew at the Midnight Sun air show at Kauhava. After the war Air Force Academy instructors carried the tradition on in successive trainers, the Saab Safir, Fouga Magister, Valmet Vinka and finally the BAe Hawk. The jet formation of the Training Air Wing had no name until the 1997 Oulu International Airshow, the largest air show held in Finland, where its four Hawk Mk 51s appeared for the first time as the Midnight Hawks.

Hawks since 1980

Finland received its first Hawk Mk 51 on 19 December 1980 and bought 50, most assembled by Valmet at Kuorevesi; seven new Mk 51As followed in 1993 and 18 former Swiss Mk 66s entered service between 2011 and 2013. The Midnight Hawks made their first display abroad in Austria on 30 June 2000. Smoke pods were introduced in 2008, practised on 17 June and first used three days later at the Midnight Sun air show, the Midsummer evening show that runs from about 7 p.m. until midnight and gives the team its name.

The diamond today

Today the team belongs to Fighter Squadron 41 of the Air Force Academy at Tikkakoski, near Jyväskylä, and flies four Hawks with one reserve. All its pilots are qualified air combat and Hawk flight instructors, usually captains or majors, and the team keeps three sequences for different weather. On 4 June 2020 it flew over Helsinki on the Defence Forces’ Flag Day for the first time. For 2026 the team is led by Captain Ville Kirijatshenko, with a schedule that included the Swedish Air Force centenary and the Danish Air Show.