Golden Hawks

Golden Hawks
The Golden Hawks, 12 May 1959
Active	1959–1964
Country	Canada
Branch	Royal Canadian Air Force
Role	Aerobatic flight demonstration team
Size	7 Aircraft
Garrison/HQ	RCAF Station Chatham, RCAF Station Trenton
Colors	Gold
Aircraft flown
Fighter	Sabre

The Golden Hawks were a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) aerobatic flying team established in 1959 to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the RCAF and the "Golden" 50th anniversary of Canadian flight, which began with the AEA Silver Dart in 1909.

Initially, a six-plane team was envisioned as performing for only one year with the Canadair Sabre 5. The Golden Hawks originally had eight pilots led by Squadron Leader Fern Villeneuve, but the Golden Hawks were so popular after their 1959 show season that the team was re-established for 1960. The team, under the command of W/C Jack Allan, and the lead of S/L Villeneuve, included pilots: F/L James McCombe, F/L Edward Rozdeba, F/L Jeb Kerr, F/L Ralph Annis, F/L Sam Eisler, F/O Jim Holt and F/O William (Bill) Stewart.

In 1961, F/L McCombe became the leader of the team, as Villeneuve left the team when he married. Two deaths altered the makeup of the team: F/O John T. Price joined the Hawks in 1959 after F/O Eisler died, and served as second solo. When F/L Kerr died in a crash in Calgary, F/O John T. Price moved to lead solo.

F/O Stewart's routine as lead solo was often the one most remembered since his low-level aerobatics looked to the crowd to be particularly dangerous. The Golden Hawks continued performing for three more seasons until they were disbanded, ostensibly for financial reasons, on February 7, 1964, having flown a total of 317 shows across North America.

Not only did the team perform standard loops and rolls in very tight formation, they also introduced their own trademark maneuvers. The Golden Hawks pioneered a two-aircraft head-on coordinated solo program which virtually every military team since has adopted in various ways. They also invented the Card 5 Maneuver, where five aircraft fly in a card formation, two up front, one in the middle, two in the back. They also created the Coordinated Two Aircraft 360, where two aircraft fly in opposite directions at low level at about 350 miles an hour, at about seven gravities, in a horizontal circle and pass each other on both sides of the circle.

The legacy of the Golden Hawks lives on with the Canadian Forces Snowbirds and the Hawk One demonstration team established at Vintage Wings of Canada in 2009 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of powered flight in Canada.

Original Golden Hawks aircraft are found in several locations including Canadair Sabre 6 #23651 on display at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Mount Hope, Ontario. The original Golden Hawks Sabre 6 is on loan from the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, and is displayed with Plexiglas panels on the port side. The National Air Force Museum of Canada has a Golden Hawks Canadair Sabre 6 (#23641) that was formerly mounted on a pylon at CFB Mountainview and is now on display at CFB Trenton, Ontario. Canadian Sabre 5 #23355 that was flown by the Golden Hawks is on display at the Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, after being originally dedicated in 1986 as a gate guardian at the former CFB Chatham, and ultimately restored at the museum. A Canadair Sabre 5 (#23042) that flew with the Golden Hawks is also on display at the Technik Museum Speyer in Speyer (Rhineland-Palatinate), Germany.