2014 Belgian Air Force Days - Kleine Brogel airbase
The Belgian Air Force Days of 2014 were organized at Kleine Brogel airbase. This year the Belgian Air Force celebrated the 40 years anniversary of the F16. The FA-104 was temporarily adorned with the USAF prototype F16 c/s. Other countries which operate the F16 attended this airshow for this occasion: the Netherlands, Denmark, Greece, Portugal and Turkey – 4 of these all participated with their own F16 solo display!
In 2014 the Belgian Air Force had to decide which aircraft would be the F16 successor. The F35 had the most chance, but others were still officially in the contest. Therefore the Rafale and Gripen also attended this show for its publicity.
Demonstration teams were also well presented at the Belgian Air Force days 2014: the famous Red Arrows, Patrouille de France and Frecce Tricolore flew their demos’. Also the Swiss PC7 Team, Royal Jordanian Falcons, Breitling Jet Team and the RAF Faclons (para’s) attended. Really cool demo team was also the UAE Al Fursan demo team with their MB339’s!
Serial numbers of the participating demo team aircraft:
Red Arrows Hawk T1: XX278, XX311, XX310, XX325, XX322, XX319, XX323, XX219, XX242, XX244, XX245
L39 Team Breitling: ES-YLN/1, ES-YLI/2, ES-YLX/3, ES-TLF/5, ES-YLF/6, ES-YLP/7, ES-TLG/4 (spare)
PC7 Demo Team: A-912/1, A-917/2, A-918/3, A-925/4, A-915/6, A-916/5, A-929/9, A-926/8, A-931/7
Al Fursan MB339: 440/1, 432/2, 438/3, 430,4, 434/5, 436/6, 437/7
Belgian Air Force Alpha Jet Flypast: AT-02, AT-18, AT-19, AT-20, AT-10, AT-14, AT-05
MB339 Frecce Tricolore: MM54538/1, MM54480/2, MM55059/3, MM54505/4, MM54473/5, MM55054/6, MM55058/7, MM54482/8, MM54477/9, MM54514/10, MM55055/0 (spare)
Most interesting among the static display aircraft were the Polish special anniversary tail MiG29 and the Slovak tiger tail MiG29UB. A couple of Lakenheath F15D Eagles attended the festivities as well as some types which would soon be withdrawn from use: an Austrian Saab 105O, Belgian Falcon 20, Sea King and Alouette III and a Norwegian P3 Orion. Some oldies like a Pilatus P3, T28 Trojan and Chipmunk in Portuguese markings also adorned the static display lines.
Overall the 2014 Belgian Air Force days were well presented and a success, although the day started with a low cloud base during the afternoon the weather improved. Since the morning program had some cancelled flights the organization managed to extend their flight program from 17:00 to 19:00! Besides the many demo teams a lot of other cool demo's and aircraft flew during the programme. A pair of Mirage 2000N's flew very tight patters, a Polish MiG29 stole the show. Intersting aircraft was a Belgian B-Hunter UAV. A Czech Mi24 Hind performed a demo as well as a Pilatus factory PC21, Austrian Saab 105O, Dutch Apache demo team and many large Belgian Air Force formations. Many aircraft used flares.
