USAF Aerial Aerobatic Display Teams

Men on the Flying Trapeze (1932-1936)

Skylarks (1937)

Red Devils

Guardian Angels

Acrojets

Sabre Dancers

USAFE Acrojets

Sabre Knights

Minute Men

Four Horsemen

Black Knights

"Men on the Flying Trapeze," organized in 1932 at the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field, Ala., flew P-12 pursuit aircraft until the team disbanded in 1936.

The photograph shows (from left) Lt. W.C. McDonald, Jr., Capt. Claire L. Chennault and Lt. John H. Williamson, each of whom went to China early in World War II and served with the Flying Tigers. Not pictured was team member Lt. Haywood S. Hansell Jr., who in 1944 and early 1945 commanded the 21st Bomber Command during the B-29 bombing campaign against Japan.

The trophy was one presented to the team during the All-American Air Races at Miami, Fla., in 1935.

Army Air Corps teams, such as the Skylarks demonstration team from Maxwell Field, Ala., carefully avoided any reference to their maneuvers as "stunt flying," which was strictly forbidden by Air Corps regulations.

Flying P-12Es, the Skylarks, successors to the Men on the Flying Trapeze, demonstrated their skill at the National Air Races at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1937.

The Red Devils are from Las Vegas Air Force Base, Nev. (later renamed Nellis Air Force Base). Standing from left are Lt. Gabriel Bartholomew, Maj. John England (leader) and Lt. Leon Pagan; kneeling from left are Capt. Joe Joiner and Lt. James Putnam. Flying P-51 Mustangs, the team was in existence for less than a year (1949).

England Air Force Base, La., was named for Maj. England, who was killed in an aircraft crash in 1954.

The Guardian Angels, a Maryland Air National Guard exhibition flying team, are shown here in close formation in their F-51Hs (1953).

All information and some pictures bellow are taken from the National Museum of the USAF website

The Acrojets team are from the USAF Fighter School at Williams Air Force Base, Ariz. (c. 1949).

Team existence from 1949 to 1953, and flew F-80s and the trainer version of that aircraft, the T-33.

The F-86As of the Sabre Dancers demonstration team display the famed "Hat in the Ring" insignia from the 94th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron (c. 1950).

This T-33 was assigned to the USAFE Acrojets, a team organized by USAF instructor pilots after the air base at Fuerstenfledbruck, Germany, became a training base for the West German Air Force (c. 1956).

The team was organized in 1954 by pilots of the Air Defense Command's 325th Fighter Interceptor Squadron and flies with F-86D.

Members of the Colorado Air National Guard's Minute Men put on aerial shows in their F-86s beginning in 1954, and from 1956 until 1959, they served as the National Guard Bureaus official aerial demonstration team representing all ANG units. At the begining the team flies with F-80.

The 38th Bomb wing at Laon, France, became well known in Europe in the late 1950s for their Black Knight aerobatic team, normally consisting of a flight of four B-57s and a solo aircraft. Although this was the first bomber aerobatic team, it soon was ordered disbanded.

The unique Four Horsemen team performed from 1956 until 1960 in the U.S. flying four-engine C-130 cargo aircraft demonstrating a series of formation-changing maneuvers. Aircraft were selected at random for demonstrations; no specially modified aircraft were used.

The Four Horsemen in 1960 included Capts. Hubert E. Chaney, William H. Hatfield, James F. Akin and David L. Moore, Tactical Air Command pilots of the 774th Troop Carrier Squadron. The team's purpose was to demonstrate the performance and versatility of the C-130 aircraft.