Description

In the spring of 1949 the first flights of the Skyblazers Air Demonstration Team took places in the skies over Europe at the airbase in Furstenfeldbruk, Germany. The pilots were part of the 22nd fighter squadron from the 36th Fighter Wing as part of the USAFE (United States Air Forces in Europe). The team was instructed by the USAFE headquarters to create an aerobatics team using F-80B aircraft and perform demonstrations throughout Europe. Soon afterwards the team was given modified F-84E Thunderjet aircraft. The 50-caliber machine guns were removed from the front of the aircraft for better handling in the demonstrations. By the summer of 1952 the team had performed more that 260 air demonstrations in more than 12 countries.