Fliegerstaffel 18

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Fliegerstaffel 18
18ème Escadrille
Squadriglia d'aviazione 18
Rear quarter view of McDonnell Douglas F-18 taxiing 2010-07-24.jpg
F/A-18C J-5018 Panthers Fliegerstaffel 18
Active1925-today
CountrySwitzerland
Branch Swiss Air Force
RoleFighter squadron
Garrison/HQ Payerne Air Base

Fliegerstaffel 18 (18 Squadron) «Panthers» of the Swiss Air Force is a Berufsfliegerkorps squadron equipped with McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 and forms Fliegergeschwader 14 together with Fliegerstaffel 19. The home base of the Fliegerstaffel 18 is Payerne Air Base. The Fliegerstaffel 18 carries a Black Panther against a green backdrop as its coat of arms.

Swiss Air Force Air component of the Swiss Armed Forces

The Swiss Air Force is the air component of the Swiss Armed Forces, established on 31 July 1914 as part of the army and in October 1936 as an independent service.

Berufsfliegerkorps

The Berufsfliegerkorps (BFK) are the professional pilots of the Swiss Air Force.

Fliegerstaffel 19

Fliegerstaffel 19 of the Swiss Air Force is a militia squadron equipped with Northrop F-5E and forms together with Fliegerstaffel 18 Fliegergeschwader 14. The home base of the fliegerstaffel 19 is Sion Airport. The "Fliegerstaffel 19" carries as a coat of arms a stylized swan on a blue background.

Contents

History

The establishment of the Fliegerkompanie 18 took place in 1925. From 1928 to 1941, it used the Dewoitine D-27. From 1941 to 1949, flight operations were done with Morane D-3800. In 1945, the Fliegerkompanie 18 was 1945 renamed Fliegerstaffel 18. From 1949 to 1956, the Fliegerstaffel 18 was equipped with P-51 Mustang. The jet-aircraft De Havilland D.H. 112 Venom was used at the Fliegerstaffel 18 from 1957 to 1973. From 1973 to 1975, The Fliegerstaffel 18 used the Hawker Hunter with the Alpnach Air Base as homebase. Since 1975, the Payerne Air Base is the new home base of the Fliegerstaffel 18.

Hawker Hunter aircraft

The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-Royce Avon turbojet engine and the swept wing, and was the first jet-powered aircraft produced by Hawker to be procured by the RAF. On 7 September 1953, the modified first prototype broke the world air speed record for aircraft, achieving a speed of 727.63 mph.

Alpnach Air Base

The Air Base Alpnach is a Swiss Air Force airfield near the town Alpnach in Canton of Obwalden in Switzerland. It has a concrete runway with a length of 1,500 meters (4,900 ft) and a width of 40 meters (130 ft), as well as several taxiways and hangars.

Payerne Air Base

Payerne Airport is a military airfield of the Swiss Air Force north of Payerne in Switzerland, located approximately halfway between Lausanne and Bern.

From 1978 to 1997, the Fliegerstaffel 18 used the F-5 Tiger from Payerne. As second squadron (after Fliegerstaffel 17), the Fliegerstaffel 18 introduced the F/A-18 Hornet. At the end of 2005, the Überwachungsgeschwader was disbanded and the staff, and thus also the Fliegerstaffel 18, were transferred to the Berufsfliegerkorps. In 2010, the F/A-18C with the tailnumber J-50 18 received a permanent squadron painting and is the squadron aircraft of the Fliegerstaffel 18.

Fliegerstaffel 17

Fliegerstaffel 17 "Falcons" of the Swiss Air Force is a Berufsfliegerkorps squadron of professional pilots flying McDonnell Douglas F/A-18. Together with Fliegerstaffel 6 it forms Fliegergeschwader 11. The home base of the squadron is Payerne Air Base. Fliegerstaffel 17 features a red falcon on a white ground with the black number 17 as its coat of arms.

Überwachungsgeschwader

The Überwachungsgeschwader (UeG) was the overall unit of the Swiss Air Force professional pilots.

In normal flight operation the J-5018 is given priority to the squadron commander of Fliegerstaffel 18, but is also flown by other pilots. If the current F/A-18 Hornet Solo Display pilot is from the Fliegerstaffel 18, he will fly the J-5018, if possible. The Fliegerstaffel 18 usually operates with the Fliegergeschwader 11 (Fl Geschw 11) from the Payerne Air Base. Tactically, however, the Fliegerstaffel 18 belongs together with the Fliegerstaffel 19 to the Fliegergeschwader 14 (Fl Geschw 14), which belongs to the airfield command 14 (Flpl Kdo 14) and is stationed on the Sion Airport.

Sion Airport Airport in Sion, Switzerland

Sion Airport is the airport of the city of Sion, Switzerland and is located 2.5 km southwest of Sion city in the Rhone Valley. The airport opened in 1935.

Although the NATO Tigermeet is reserved for the squadrons with a tiger emblem, the Fliegerstaffel 18 was invited as a guest due to the fact that they have a “cat” as a squadron emblem.

NATO Intergovernmental military alliance of Western states

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 29 North American and European countries. The organization implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949. NATO constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party. NATO’s Headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, while the headquarters of Allied Command Operations is near Mons, Belgium.

NATO Tiger Association

The NATO Tiger Association or the Association of Tiger Squadrons was established in 1961. Promoted by French Defence minister Pierre Messmer, its role is to promote solidarity between NATO air forces. It is not, though, part of the formal NATO structure.

The Armasuisse, Oberstleutnant Bernhard Berset is in its military duty F/A-18 pilot in the Fliegerstaffel 18. The first female fighter jet pilots of the Swiss Air Force Fanny Chollet is also a member of the squadron.

armasuisse Swiss governmental agency

The Federal Office for Defence Procurement (Armasuisse) is a federal agency of the Swiss Confederation. It is the procurement organization for armaments of Switzerland and is affiliated with the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport.

Oberstleutnant is a German Army and German Air Force rank equal to lieutenant colonel, above Major, and below Oberst.

Bernhard Berset

Bernhard "Beni" Berset is the chief test pilot at the Armasuisse and a pilot of the Swiss Air Force. He is a professional officer in the rank of Lieutenant colonel and Chief Air Defense (CAD) in militia duty.

Aircraft

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Fliegerstaffel 4

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Fliegerstaffel 5

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Fliegerstaffel 7

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Fliegerstaffel 8

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Fliegerstaffel 10

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Fliegerstaffel 13

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Fliegerstaffel 20

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Fliegerstaffel 24

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