AVIATION-SHOTS   

AGA (Academia General del Aire) -  The cradle of Spanish Aviators

AGA, or Academia General del Aire, the academy for future Spanish pilots has the main mission of training all the future officers of the Ejercito del Aire y del Espacio of the Spanish Air Force.

The school, based at San Javer Airport (ICAO code: LELC) is located in the region of Murcia, to be precise in the municipality of Santiago de la Ribera, a town overlooking the waters of the Mar Menor.

Due to its proximity to the sea, in the beginning the San Javer airfield was a naval air base and had different schools of naval aeronautics.

Naval aviation built most of the facilities, some of which are still present at the airport.

During the Spanish Civil War, from 1936/1939 the naval air base was part of the air forces of the republic and not least, for its non-front-line position it was dedicated to teaching the rules of flight and air combat, thus becoming one of the main centers of the Republican Aviation.

At the end of the hostilities of the civil war, the San Javer base was incorporated into the newly formed Spanish Air Force and was once again the main headquarters for the flight teaching of the pre-military air school and the first course in 1940 consisted of 400 students.

In those years the Spanish Air Force was developing rapidly and for this reason in 1943 it was decided to equip the armed force with its own Academy of General Officers and with a decree of 28 July 1943 the General Academy of the Air Force was created.

The main purpose of this new unit was to train in all aspects, military, physical, cultural, the future professional officers of the Aire Army.

Coming to the technical/practical aspect, flight teaching has been and still is the central reason for the activity of the San Javer base, which is divided into two phases: an initial one called elementary followed later by the improvement phase called basic flight.

The first instructional trainer used was the Bucker Bu-131 (E.3B), a single-engine, two-seat biplane, which was used from September 1945 to March 1976.

From February 1958 the Grupo Basico de Vuelo was also formed, a basic flying group with the Beechcraft T-34 (E.17) Mentor in use.

Multi-engine aircraft were also used at the Academia General del Aire, notably the Heinkel He-111 and Junkers Ju-5 2 for improved bombing training, and the C-47(T.3) for the transport section.

During the years 1962-1963 the T-6 (C.6) Texan entered the school and at that time the Salamanca/Matacan Base Flight School was also transferred to San Javer.

At the beginning of the 1970s, the first Hispano HA-200 (E.14) "Saeta" were introduced into service, the first Spanish-made "jet".

In 1980 another radical change took place in AGA, in fact on March 27 of that year the first 4 CASA C-101 called E.25 "MIRLO" arrived in San Javer

An interesting detail has as its protagonist at the Academia General del Aire the current King of Spain PHILIP VI, the Spanish Sovereign in fact completed his studies during the academic year 1987/1988, becoming a second lieutenant in 1989, then obtaining the flight licenses on the T-34 Mentor, C-101 Aviojet and C-212 Aviocar.

The year 1988/1989 also marks an important date: in fact, the first woman participates in that academic year, and since then the percentage of female students has exceeded 10% of the students.

Another important milestone at the beginning of the 2000s, always concerning female participation in school, concerns the academic year 2006/2007, in that course she obtained the fighter pilot license for the Ejercito del Aire Rosa Maria Garcia-Malea, the first Spanish woman to acquire this important goal.

In 2007, a law on military careers introduced a new model of military education, thus the San Javer University Defense Center (CUD) was born, based on an agreement between the Ministry of Defense and the  the Polytechnic University of Cartagena that allows AGA students to also obtain a degree as industrial organization engineers and in 2010 the opening ceremony of the first academic year was held according to the new teaching model.

On February 23, 2016, the historic milestone of exceeding 250,000 hours flown with the Casa C-101 Spanish designation E.25 was reached

 As we said, the goal of the AGA is to train all future Air Force and Space officers.

The main study plans corresponding to the courses taught at the AGA correspond to the criteria of:

- provide the necessary training for aggregation at all levels

- ensure the complete human formation and the full development of the personality

- ensure knowledge of the missions of the Armed Forces defined in the Constitution

As in normal universities, the military education system is divided into faculties including.

- Legal and Social Sciences

- Physical, mathematical and applied technical sciences

-languages

- Logistics, economics and administration

- Flight techniques

- Tactics and weapon systems

Subsequently, flight training at AGA is divided into three phases.

- Elementary-selective group

-Base assembly

- Forward Group/Fighter, Helicopter Transport.

The new pilots who join the advanced group will then be assigned to the advanced courses, according to their skills and abilities:

- Fighter-attack: at the ALA23 fighter school group based in Talavera la Real/Badajoz

-Transport: Grupo de Escuelas de Matacan located at the base of ALA 74, Salamanca.

-Helicopters: ALA 78 based in Armilla/Granada.

To train the new pilots, the Ejercito del Aire y del Espacio has been equipped with a new trainer, the Pilatus PC-21 (called E.27), chosen to replace the veterans ENAERT T-35 "TAMIZ" and the CASA C-101 "AVIOJET"

24 examples of the PC-21 were ordered in 2020, the first was delivered in September 2021 and the last in mid-2022.

In December 2022, the Spanish Air Force decided to order a second batch of another 16 PC-21s; 14 units for the Academia General and two for the Centro Logistico de Armamento y Experimantacion (CLAEX) in Torrejon. These two PC-21s will be used for experimental flight training and research and development activities. With the purchase of this second batch, the Spanish Air Force becomes the largest user of PC-21s in Europe.

 With the arrival of the new machine, new systems have also been purchased for practical teaching on the ground such as a flight simulator and other basic simulators where students become familiar with the entire PC-21 system

The new aircraft provides the Spanish Air Force with a very advanced system and also a cost-effective and more eco-sustainable training platform, in fact the experience with the current PC-21 has shown that the training cost for each pilot can be reduced by more than 50%.

The new Swiss aircraft has avionics similar to the latest generation fighters; It is an advanced training aircraft that will allow new pilots of the Spanish Air Force to complete aeronautical training from the early stages of flight to the transition to combat aircraft.

The PC-21 is already used by the Air Forces of Saudi Arabia, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, France, Jordan, Qatar, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Switzerland.

At the San Javer base there is also the historic headquarters of the PATRULLA AGUILA, the aerobatic team of the Spanish Air Force.

Founded in 1985 by a group of pilots from the Academia, they made their first formation flight in June of that year with the relatively new CASA C-101 aircraft.

After the success of the first flyovers and exhibitions, the number of PATRULLA planes increased to six.

In 1988 another aircraft was added, bringing the current number of aircraft to 7.

Given the withdrawal from the flight line, at the moment the only examples of CASA C-101 used in the Spanish Air Force are those used by the PATRULLA AGUILA, except for a couple still in the old livery and always used in Academia as a support aircraft.

Aviation-shots would like to thank the Spanish Air Force for the superb support received in making this report. 

Enjoy the pictures!!