Sabres at Hamamatsu

Blue Impulse grew out of an unofficial F-86F display flown at Hamamatsu in 1958. After a visit by the USAF Thunderbirds in 1959, Chief of Staff Minoru Genda backed a formal team: its first display, for senior officers at Hamamatsu, was flown on 4 March 1960, and on 16 April 1960 an aerial manoeuvre research group was ordered into being inside the 2nd Squadron. The first nickname, Tenryū, after the nearby river, proved awkward on the radio and the team became Blue Impulse. On 10 October 1964 five Sabres drew the Olympic rings in coloured smoke over the Tokyo opening ceremony, and in 1970 they wrote “EXPO’70” above Osaka.

The T-2 years and the Hamamatsu crash

After 545 displays the Sabres gave way in 1982 to the supersonic Mitsubishi T-2, with the team moving to Matsushima in Miyagi Prefecture. On 14 November 1982, during a downward bomb-burst at the Hamamatsu air show, the No. 4 aircraft failed to pull out and crashed beside the airfield. The pilot was killed and twelve residents were injured. The investigation blamed a late break call by the leader but also faulted the pilot. Displays stopped until October 1983, aerobatics resumed only in July 1984 at a higher minimum height, and the downward bomb-burst was dropped.

An independent squadron on the T-4

Until 1995 the pilots were instructors who flew displays on the side. The replacement team was set up as a dedicated unit: a provisional 11th Squadron formed at Matsushima on 1 October 1994 and became a regular squadron of the 4th Air Wing on 22 December 1995. Pilots now serve a fixed three-year tour: training in year one, displaying in year two, and instructing their successor in year three. The Kawasaki T-4, in a white and blue scheme chosen by public competition, flew its first public display on 5 April 1996, and in April 1997 the team made its first overseas appearance, at Nellis Air Force Base for the USAF’s 50th anniversary.

Losses in sea fog

The team has lost eight pilots. A Sabre went into the sea off Cape Irago in July 1961 and a second was lost in 1965. Twice on 4 July the sea fog off Kinkasan proved fatal: in 1991 two T-2s crashed after the leader became disoriented, killing two pilots, and in 2000 the two solo T-4s hit a hilltop near Oshika on the way home from training, killing three. The 2000 crash took place close to the Onagawa nuclear plant’s no-fly zone, and training resumed only in February 2001 under new minimum heights and new approach routes.

Tsunami, pandemic and Olympics

On 11 March 2011 the tsunami flooded Matsushima, but the team was at Ashiya for a Kyushu Shinkansen opening and its aircraft survived. It trained from Kyushu until it returned home on 30 March 2013. In May 2020 it flew over Tokyo hospitals in thanks to medical staff, and on 23 July 2021 it again drew the Olympic rings over Tokyo in colour smoke, flying two six-aircraft formations in case of trouble. The 2021 Paralympic flight left dye on about 1,200 cars near Iruma, and the officers responsible were disciplined. The team marked its 30th year as a squadron in January 2026.