Volunteers in 1987

Solo displays in the Pilatus PC-7 began soon after the Swiss Air Force introduced the trainer in 1982, and in 1987 nine volunteer pilots flew a first formation display as an ad hoc group. The team was established officially in 1989, the year of the Swiss Air Force’s 75th anniversary, and has displayed in Switzerland several times each year since then, with appearances abroad from 1992.

Nine turboprops

The team flies nine PC-7s in red and white. Its pilots are full-time military aviators who normally fly the F/A-18 Hornet and join the team in addition to their main duties. The aircraft were upgraded to the NCPC-7 standard with a new cockpit from October 2006. Smoke generators, which inject a diesel-oil mixture into the right-hand exhaust, were fitted to seven aircraft in 2014 and first used in public at Buochs on 1 August 2014. A month later, at Air14 in Payerne, the team flew a fifteen-aircraft formation with the Patrouille Suisse.

Successor to the Patrouille Suisse

On 17 February 2017, during the Alpine World Ski Championships at St. Moritz, an aircraft clipped the cable of a television camera, which fell into the finish area; nobody was hurt and the aircraft landed safely. In September 2025 the Swiss Air Force confirmed that, with the F-5 Tiger to be retired by the end of 2027, the PC-7 Team will take over as the national aerobatic team, citing lower costs and emissions.