Issue No 21 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN 33
comparatively simple displays at the show.
Owing to a lack of resources and potential fatigue
issues with the F-5Bs, however, this experience
was not repeated at subsequent Kish shows.
In 2012, during the sixth Kish Airshow, two
Sukhoi Su-25KM Scorpions of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force
(IRGCAF — a separate entity from the IRIAF)
performed simple aerobatic manœuvres. In June
2014 all of the IRGCAF’s Su-25s were delivered
to the Iraqi Air Force to be used against Da’esh
(aka ISIL) forces, putting paid to any further
plans for display flights.
In March 2012 the IRIAF’s Strategic Research
& Studies Office invited all the surviving former
Golden Crown team pilots to a reunion, in which
they were honoured and invited to discuss plans
and provide advice for the possible creation of
a new IRIAF formation aerobatic team. Perhaps
unsurprisingly, the plan failed to gain traction
with the top brass, and ultimately the idea
came to nothing.BELOW One of the original Golden Crown F-86Fs remains on
display in the team’s colours at the Sa’ad Abad War Museum in
Tehran. In total, five pilots were killed during the Golden Crown
team’s 21-year career. Although there has been talk of reactivating
an IRIAF formation aerobatic display team over the last few years,
nothing has materialised — and is probably unlikely to.TAHBABAK TAGHVAEE