Fly By Wire Aviation has shown its tests at the AGA in San Javier

The PC-21 aircraft of the Formación Mirlo are now creating smoke trails with the Spanish Flag

Esp 10·09·2025 · 22:29 0

On Sunday we talked about the new Blackbird Formation that will replace the Eagle Patrol in the October 12 parade in Madrid.

The Formación Mirlo will relieve the Patrulla Águila with PC-21 aircraft on October 12
The striking reduction in the number of planes at the October 12 air parade in Madrid

The historic Patrulla Águila said goodbye in June after 40 years as the Spanish Air Force's fixed-wing demonstration team. We will no longer see its seven C-101 Aviojet jets flying, creating smoke trails in the colors of the Spanish Flag, but that does not mean that we will not see something like this again with other aircraft.

In April, we saw here that the Air Force was testing smoke generators on the Pilatus PC-21s, the turboprop aircraft that replace the C-101s in training students at the General Air Academy (AGA) in San Javier, Murcia.

As we saw then, the smoke generators chosen for the PC-21 are of the model Sanders Smoke Technologies SCSG-5 (in fact, the website of that company has linked to the article published by Defensa y Aviación talking about those generators). The California-based company has been manufacturing smoke generators for aerobatic aircraft since 1973. The SCSG-5 is the smoke generator Pilatus lists on its PILMO Capability List (Pilatus Maintenance Organization).

As we saw in April, the SCSG-5 is a 2-meter long by 254 mm wide aluminum nacelle, which contains the smoke generator, a 7.57-liter tank of 100-octane aviation gasoline and 37.85 liters of smoke oil, with a capacity to operate for about 10 minutes. Sanders Smoke Technologies notes that the SCSG-5 is compatible with Milliken aviation colorants, which allow the creation of colored smoke trails like those commonly generated by the C-101 Aviojet aircraft of the Eagle Patrol.

Last Sunday we saw here the doubts about whether we would finally see those smoke trails with the colors of the Spanish Flag in the parade on October 12. The press kit published by the Ministry of Defense (PDF) on October 3 states that yes: "This formation, made up of five aircraft, will be responsible for carrying out the flyover during the central event of the National Holiday, using for the first time the colored smoke that simulates the national flag". However, two media outlets had denied this.

This Wednesday, Fly By Wire Aviation (whose YouTube channel I encourage you to follow) published a video showing a rehearsal of the Blackbird Formation at the San Javier General Assembly, generating trails in the colors of the Spanish flag. In the video, we see four of the five aircraft in that formation generating trails with two SCSG-5s, one under each wing. The aircraft leading the formation does not carry smoke generators:

So, everything indicates we'll see something like this at the October 12th parade, which commemorates National Holiday. Let's hope the weather cooperates and doesn't force the cancellation of the air parade, as happened last year.

+ UPDATED 11.10.2025 18:00h: This morning the Spanish Air Force has published this video of the Formación Mirlo making smoke trails with the colors of the Spanish Flag in a rehearsal for the National Day parade:

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Images: Ejército del Aire.

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