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From Forces Aériennes Belges,
Starfighter FX-47 of Squadron N°31. The unit was formed inside
the 10th Fighter Bomber Wing in November 1951. Lacking of
specialists the unit litterally was glued to ground and it's only
on 4th january 1952 that first sortie occured on...that was
already considered as Warbird, even in Europe: a Spitfire XIV.
One understand why specialists were lacking, Rolls Royce engines
running before all on prestigious cars!!! The Spits lasted until
July, month which saw the squadron without aircraft!!! A true
Belgian story...
Be serious. All the squadron pilots and personnel,
administratively belonging to N°31, were detached to 23rd and 27th
Squadrons...to convert during october 1952 on Republic F-84Gs
after a two months training on T-Birds and then acted as well as
tactical as instrument flight training squadron from various
Belgian bases before to definitively install at Kleine Brogel in
January 1955.
From 1956, after having ferried old Thunderjets to Erding in
Germany and Nouasseur in Morocco, the 31st converted to another
Republic type, the F-84F Thunderstreak. In the fighter bomber
role pilots logged 37000 flight hours with the type during 7
years and their unit was considered as the most mobile fighter
bomber squadron during its integration to the Ace Mobile Force
inside the Belgian AF.
Squadron got its F-104G Starfighters in March 1964 and continued
with excellence in the some slightly different strike fighter
bomber work.
