28 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN Issue No 21nine IIAF F-84Gs, performed a joint display over
Chitgar, west of Tehran.
The following February, an open day and
airshow was held on the 12th at Mehrabad
Airport. Personnel and pilots of USAFE’s 36th
FG were again invited to join the IIAF for the
Golden Crown team’s public debut with six
recently delivered North American F-86F Sabres,
which were accompanied by four USAFE F-100C
Super Sabres.
For Iran’s 1960 Military Day parade the Golden
Crown team returned to the F-84G, four of which
performed a display for the C-in-C of the IIAF
and American Secretary of Defense Thomas S.
Gates Jr at Mehrabad Airport on May 27. Five
months later, the Skyblazers were once again
invited by the IIAF to perform a joint performance
with the Golden Crown team in Tehran on Octo-
ber 17 for Air Force Week. Six Golden Crown
Thunderjets and four Skyblazers Super Sabres
tore up the skies above Chitgar for the Shah and
thousands of Tehran residents.
The team continued to fly the F-84G until 1961,
by which time 52 F-86Fs had been handed over to
the IIAF after overhaul in Spain, again under the
provisions of the MDAP. Accordingly, the team
converted to the F-86, a much more manœuvrable
and stable aircraft than the elderly Thunderjet.
The team’s first official demonstration after the
transition to the Sabre was performed on October
20, 1961, when four of the world’s most famous
formation aerobatic display teams came together
for a joint display at Mehrabad for Air Force
Week. Six Golden Crown F-86Fs joined togetherwith four F-100Cs of the Skyblazers, 12 RAF
Hawker Hunters of No 92 Sqn’s Blue Diamonds
team and 12 Dassault Mystère IVs of the French
formation aerobatic team, Patrouille de France.
Four days later the team performed a six-aircraft
display for the Shah and people of Dezful and
Andimeshk at Vahdati AB on the occasion of the
Shah’s birthday and Air Force Week.
A few days later four Golden Crown F-86Fs
were performing a display over Tehran when
they commenced a manœuvre the team had
nicknamed “The Crossroads of Death”, in which
the paths of the four Sabres cross at high speed.
Two of the aircraft, flown by 1st Lt Esmaeel
Memari and 1st Lt Ghasem Farajwand, collided,
killing both pilots. The Sabres came together at
such speed that wreckage was strewn over a six-
mile (10km) area of Tehran, some of it killing an
electrical worker on the ground.
During 1962–63 the team moved to the 2nd TFB
Vahdati (now 4th TFB Vahdati) at Dezful, where
the Golden Crown pilots and aircraft were placed
under the command of the 201st Tactical Fighter
Squadron (TFS). October 1963 was a busy month
for the team, with four-aircraft displays being
performed as part of Aviation Week at Isfahan on
the 9th, at the new airport at Shiraz on the 10th
and at Abadan on the 11th. The final Aviation
Week display was performed at the newly
established 3rd TFB at Shahrokhi at Hamadan on
the 17th, in the presence of the Shah.
The Golden Crown team became a regular
fixture during Aviation Week over the next four
years, with four-aircraft displays being under-ABOVE The IIAF took delivery of its first F-86F Sabres in early 1960, the Golden Crown team converting to the type
the following year. The type remained the team’s mount for the next ten years, this photograph showing the 1969
team with an F-86F. From left to right: Teymouri; Imanian; Jahanbani; Izadsetah; Abrishamian; Mofki and Rajabian.AUTHOR’S COLLECTION