[Video] Rafale fighter jets perform aerobatics with the Patrouille de France

This video is not only interesting for the quality of the footage.

What’s really intesting is the fact that it shows the Patrouille de France, the French Air Force display team, performing some (basic) aerobatic maneuvers with a couple of Rafale multirole fighter jets.

Even if display teams fly in formation with aircraft of a different type to celebrate specific events or air-to-air photo shootings (the large final formation including Mirage 2000s is a clear example of such episodes), they usually don’t fly the whole or part of their display (not even a loop, as shown in the video) with other aircraft not belonging to the team.

This is because the peculiarities of the formation aerobatics are such that a long and focused training is required to be able to fly aerobatic maneuvers so close to other planes, a kind of flying not normally conducted by pilots belonging to operative combat units.

Anyway, the French Air Force did a great job and the resulting short promotional video is quite cool.

PATROUILLE DE FRANCE vs RAFALE www.patrouilledefrancelefilm.com from AIRBORNE FILMS on Vimeo.

Related articles

• Some special colors and kill markings at the airshow for the 60 years of the Patrouille de France
• Disbandment of Swiss Air Force display team could make its “Flat Eric” yellow puppet mascot unemployed
• Spitfire vs Bf 109 and F-14 vs Su-27: the difference is always the pilot
• British fighter pilot will soon attend the famous Top Gun school for the first time ever

About David Cenciotti

WebsiteFacebookTwitterLinkedIn instagram

David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.