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The Roulettes are the Royal Australian Air Force's formation aerobatic display team. They provide about 150 flying displays a year, in Australia and in friendly countries around the South-east Asian region. The Roulettes form part of the RAAF Central Flying School (CFS) at RAAF Base East Sale, Victoria. ==History and organisation== The Central Flying School formed its first official aerobatic team in 1962, the ''Red Sales'', using De Havilland Vampire jet fighters, but lapsed before reforming for a short time as the ''Telstars'' in 1962, then as the Telstars again for just two months in 1968, this time flying the Macchi MB-326 jet trainer. In 1970, the Roulettes were formed to celebrate the RAAF's 50th anniversary, and have been a permanent team ever since. Initially, they were equipped with four Macchis, growing to five aircraft in 1974 and seven in 1981 before cost-cutting saw the team reduced to five again in 1982. Towards the end of the 1980s, the Roulettes flying hours had to be reduced as the MB-326 fleet developed premature metal fatigue problems and a replacement aircraft type was investigated. In 1989, with the new Pilatus PC-9 trainers starting to arrive and MB-326 airframe hours severely limited, the Roulettes flew just a single pair of Macchis. The Roulettes switched over to the new PC-9s in late 1989, and arrived at the composition they have used ever since: six PC-9s plus a spare. The aircraft are painted in the bold red, white and blue scheme, with a large "R" symbol on the tail. The RAAF has since adopted this scheme (minus the "R") for all its PC-9 trainers, except for the PC-9s at ARDU and FAC, which allows an aircraft to be swapped into or out of the team to equalise fleet airframe hours by just repainting the tail. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Roulettes」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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