Not as
fast or
maneuverable as today's
Thunderbirds F-16's or the Navy's
Blue Angels F-18's but still one of the most impressive
aerial demonstration teams of all time.
Formed in early
1957 with four aircrews from the
774th Troop Carrier Squadron,
The Four Horsemen intended to show the maneuverability of the
U.S. Air Force's new
C-130A cargo plane. The 774th was the first squadron to receive the new plane.
One day a
training mission had been cancelled and with
time to spare and four ready aircraft Jim Aiken, Gene Chaney, David Moore and Bill Hatfield decided to practice some
tight formation flying. They took off and moved closer and closer in a tight
diamond formation, a staple of today's demonstration teams. Next they returned to the
airfield and made several
low altitude passes in tight formation.
They returned to their home base and
pitched the idea of taking their team to bases where more squardrons were getting the new
C-130 and show them what experienced
aircrews could do with the plane.
The brass approved and soon they had named themselves "The Four Horsemen," after the legendary members of the
1924 Notre Dame football team.
While other Air Force demonstration teams did
aerobatics, The Four Horsemen decided that they would focus more on demonstrating the
tactical capabilities of the C-130, although, the airplane was capable of aerobatics.
Formations were flown as close as 7 feet from the leader's aircraft, and several different formations were flown in the course of a
show. The
arrow was a
line astern formation with each aircraft slightly higher than
lead, followed by the arrowhead where three and four would take position to the left and right of two and slightly behind and above.
Echelon formation is with each plane to the right behind and above the leader, from echelon they would end the show with a
bomb burst where one and three would
break high and left and two and four would go right, then they would re-form and land in
diamond formation. These maneuvers, though less wild than the high performance fighter demonstration teams, were impressive nonetheless due to the C-130's
immense size and weight. During one performance the number three plane
lost an engine. The crew quickly went through the
engine shutdown checklist, secured the engine, and continued the show without ever losing their place in formation.
By
1960 the C-130 had been in service for two years and the team had been performing for almost as long, as well as keeping up a normal
training schedule. They were also ripe for
deployment overseas. The team was
disbanded, three of its members received overseas orders and one left the Air Force. They remained in close contact for many years however and the
squardron patch of the 774th was changed to reflect the team's effect on the squadron.