Last modified: 2024-09-21 by martin karner
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Light blue flag with thin stripes, near top and bottom (closer
to the edges than on the national flag), white with dark blue
borders. In the center, the air force roundel
but with points touching disc edges and a dark blue border.
Nathan Lamm, 10 February 2002
Source for my image: Album
des Pavillons 1998, which shows a 1:2 ratio. The Air
Force flag was dropped in Album
des Pavillons 2000 since it falls out of the scope of
the book (it is not an ensign which may be spotted at sea).
Željko Heimer, 11 February 2002
The Air Force flag should have a ratio 2:3.
Dov Gutterman, 11 February 2002
Heyl Ha'Avir (= The Air Force) was formed on 17 May
1948 and use the same roundel since then. It never had tail
insignia and all tail insignia in photos are squadron markings.
I don't think that there are other countries that had air force
before their independence, but IAF history start years before
independence and it is the successor of Sherut ha'Avir
(Air Service) of the "Ha'Hagana" (The defense)
underground.
Sherut Ha'Avir converted light aircraft to
"bombers" and used them in military use. Those planes
flew under the civil registration. Once "Ha'Hagana"
bought disqualified air frames and built planes out of them.
Since it wasn't possible to register them, the gave them same
civil registration as "legitimate" planes. In this way
3–4 planes flew with the same registration, and, of course, they
were put in separate in different air fields.
By the way, the Israeli first Spitfire was built from pieces from
6 planes and nicknamed "the junk Spit".
Some will maybe remember a scene from a film of the 60' with Kirk
Douglas ("Cast a Giant Shadow") in which Frank Sinatra is playing
an IAF pilot bombing the Egyptian with empty soda bottles from
his Piper Cub ...
Well, it wasn't Frankie ... it wasn't a Piper Cub (but an
Auster) ... and it happened due to lack of real bombs (those soda
bottles made a hell of a noise falling down ...).
The First IAF real combat plane was an Avia S.199 which was
really a Czech modification of the German bf-109G which arrived
in parts before the Independence, which was very hard to fly (it
was called by the Czecks "Mezek" (mule)) and was out of
service right after the Independence War.
One day after the declaration of independence (and day before the
forming of the IAF), one of the Avia's shot down 2 Egyptian
planes over Tel-Aviv. A bit of irony that 3 years after the end of
WWII, a German plane is helping Israel to defend against British
and American planes used by Arab countries ...
IAF site (in English) at
www.iaf.org.il.
IAF museum site with many photos of planes at
www.iaf-museum.org.il.
Dov Gutterman, 17 June 2004
![[Air Force (Israel)]](../images/i/il^dark.jpg)
image located by William Garrison
Source:
https://www.nato.int/cps/fr/natohq/news_168575.htm?selectedLocale=en
Caption: Meeting between NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defense
Investment, Camille Grand (left) and Director of Policy & Political-Military
Bureau at the Ministry of Defence of Israel, Zohar Palti. (Credit: Ministry of
Defence of Israel) c. Sept. 2019.
This photograph shows a flag where the
light blue is very pale and the deeper blue is very dark. The central logo is
the aircraft roundel.
William Garrison, 18 May 2022
The flag is light blue, with the Israeli national flag in
canton, with the difference that two stripes and Magen David
that are dark blue (or just blue?) on the national flag, are here
of the same light blue as the field.
Željko Heimer, 27 March 1996
![[Air Force Roundel, Magen David touching edges (Israel)]](../images/i/il_round.gif)
image by Željko Heimer
Cochrane and Elliot 1998
shows the star within, but not reaching the edges of, the white
disk. Album des Pavillons
2000 and Album des Pavillons
2001 show a white roundel with blue six-pointed star within a
blue border, like it appears on the Air Force flag.
However, I think that it is not correct: Album des Pavillons 1995
shows it without blue border.
Željko Heimer, 11 February 2002
The Air Force roundel has no blue border and the Magen
David does not reach the edges of the disk.
Dov Gutterman, 11 February 2002
Looking at recent photos of Israeli air force planes, I
checked that half of them have a blue ring round the white disk,
the other half have only white disk; moreover, it does not depend
of the colour of background!
Armand Noel du Payrat, 12 February 2002
Maybe in old planes. Check this Israeli
air force webpage and you will see that all current planes
use the no-border roundel except those with white body using thin
line around the roundel (see this
example). As a rule, the roundel has no border.
Dov Gutterman, 12 February 2002
I am currently browsing through some Israel military magazines
(Born in Battle), and almost all the roundels show the star
within, but not reaching the edges of, the white disk (the
distance of the star from the edges of the disk varying somewhat,
though). This includes early planes from the 1948/49 war of
independence (like Spitfire, B-17 Flying Fortress, Czech-built
Bf-109), and more modern planes from the 1970ies and 1980ies
(Mirage IIIC, A-4 Skyhawk, F-4 Phantom II, Kfir, F-16
Fighting Falcon, F-15 Eagle).
The only aircraft showing a roundel with a thin blue ring around
are Mosquitos and Meteors from the 1950ies, both of them having a
white or metallic colour finish [1] [2]. There is a distinct
space between the
ring and the star, though.
Sources:
[1] Born in Battle 1. Eshel-Dramit (Hod Hasharon), 1978. p.
32-33.
[2] Im Kampf geboren 5: Die israelische Luftwaffe im Kampf.
Eshel-Dramit (Hod Hasharon), 1979. p.27.
M. Schmöger, 25 November 2006
| In Album des Pavillons 1995 | In Album des Pavillons 2000 |
![[Air Force Roundel, mistaken variant with Magen David touching edges (Israel)]](../images/i/il!roun1.gif)
|
![[Air Force Roundel, mistaken variant with blue border (Israel)]](../images/i/il!roun2.gif) images by Željko Heimer
|
![[1948–1951]](../images/i/il^f48.gif)
image by Nozomi Kariyasu, 17 June 2024
image located by Nozomi Kariyasu, 17 June 2024
![[1951–]](../images/i/il^f51.gif)
image by Nozomi Kariyasu, 17 June 2024
image located by Nozomi Kariyasu, 17 June 2024
![[1951–]](../images/i/il^fl.gif)
image by Nozomi Kariyasu, 17 June 2024
image located by Nozomi Kariyasu, 17 June 2024
![[Artillery Branch of Service Flag (Armed Forces, Israel)]](../images/i/il^aac.gif)
(3:4) 90×120 cm 
image by Dov Gutterman
The AA corps are part of the Israeli Air Force and not a
separate force as costumery in some other military organizations.
The flags are rectangular, 90 cm × 120 cm and divided diagonally
by a line going from the upper hoist to the bottom fly. Bottom
hoist is black, upper fly is blue.
When the colors are used as unit flag, the emblem of the unit is
placed in the lower fly.
Source: author observation
Dov Gutterman, 15 December 2003 and 23 April 2005
![[Aggressor Squadron]](../images/i/il^agsq.gif)
image by Marc Pasquin
In Israel, the Aggressor Squadron, a squadron of the Air Force who plays "The
Bad Guy" during training exercise is the 115th Squadron nicknamed the Red
Squadron/ Flying Dragons.
Just like many such units around the world,
they wear distinctive uniforms and patches to get them in the right frame of
mind. In the case of the 115th squadron, one of the most noteworthy thing is
that they replace their national flag patch with a red/black version of it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/115_Squadron_(Israel)
Marc Pasquin, 7 February 2020
![[Air Force (Israel)]](../images/i/il^airfo.gif)
