Bill Lamb: A portion of this photo is on page 8 of the book "North American F-51 Mustangs In Latin American Air Force Service(Aerofax Datagraph 1)".It lists them as the Guatemalan Air Force aerobatic team which apparently operated from the mid 60's till the early 70's when a midair collision of three of the Mustangs put an end to their displays. It does not list a date for the photograph.


Steve Tournay: This is one cool shot: would make a great poster. I can't vouch for the exact date or location, but the dramatically-painted Mustang trio are three of the Fuerza Aerea Guatemalteca aerobatic team aircraft; the approximate time would be the mid-sixties, and the location could well be the main FAG fighter base, La Aurora, near Guatemala City. I can, actually, make out the words "La Aurora" at the end of the tiny caption at the bottom of the pic, but that could simply refer to the fact that these 51s were based there, which they would have been. The DC-2? 3? and the very interesting B-18 in the background might be of use in pinning down the location for sure.


Martin Kyburz: Positive identification of each a/c is not possible but as a general statement I can say the following:

This picture shows 3 ships of the Guatemalan Air Force's Aerobatic Demo Team, known as 'Los Machitos', which was formed late in the 1950's. This striking white/ble/red coloursheme gradually was discontinued towards the end of the Mustang-area with the FAG, giving place to the 'normal' camouflage again. Noteworthy is an accident which involved 3 Mustangs on January 12, 1972, at San Jose, Costa Rica, when 3 ships suffered a mid-air-collision with the loss of all aircraft and 2 pilots.

Visible in the picture are FAG-312, FAG-306 and FAG-342; the former history of these birds, especially their USAAF-serials have yet to be traced.


Ricardo E. Gavidia: Good color photo!!, it appears to be Fuerza Aerea Guatemalteca (FAG) 312, 336 and 342, that were painted in a kind of Thunderbirds fasion in the 60s. They were painted in this way because they were part of an FAG aerobatic team that made demonstration in the countrys of the region. The place appear to be the main base of the FAG in Guatemala city.


Joe Scheil: The guatamalan AF aerobatic team...does anyone have any film of the team??? Team ended January 12 1972 when three mustangs collided in costa rica during a show. Two of the pictured mustangs were lost with FAG 342 not being involved. They must have been fantastic as the last frontline aerobatic mustang team...


Tony Konovaloff: I don't have a definitive answer for you but I do remember reading in one of my mustang books that the Guatemalan air force had an aerobatics team that did include P-51's. I can't read the caption in your photo but it sure looks like Spanish to me. Also, Guatemalan mustangs did carry 3 digit id numbers.


Dick Phillips: WHO 131 is part of the FAG demo flight team, FAG306, FAG312 and FAG342, taken most likely at La Aurora Airport, Guatemala City. I have a copy of the same photo.


Tulio Soto: Guatemalan AF, Escuadrilla "Los Machitos" taking off from La Aurora AB during 1956.