@ Sacramento Mather Airport, CA
April 2017
An Alpha Jet of the Patrouille de France rests prior to a flight performance. The Patrouille de France is the precision aerobatic demonstration team of the French Air Force and undertook a 2017 U.S. tour to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the United States entry into World War I to fight alongside the French. This show at Mather was the only West Coast performance for the team on the tour. The team flies the Alpha Jet, a military trainer that first flew in 1973. The Alpha Jet was co-manufactured by Dassault Aviation of France and Dornier Flugzeugwerke of Germany and put into military service by many countries. In production from 1973–1991, 480 were delivered.