In Italy the first acrobatic flight school was founded in 1930 at the Udine-Campoformido Airport on the initiative of Colonel Rino Corso Fougier, commander of the 1st Fighter Wing: the first formation consisted of five Fiat C.R.20 and already on 8 June 1930 at first air show, called "Wing Day", these planes performed in a "bomb", a figure similar to the current bomb.

[7] In 1950 a patrol called Cavallino Rampante (Prancing Horse) formed, consisting of four pilots of the 4th Wing equipped with D.H.100 Vampire aircraft.

Two of the three dead pilots, Mario Naldini and Ivo Nutarelli, were supposed to testify at the trial for the Itavia Flight 870 a few days later.

[13][14] On 8 September 2007 the Frecce Tricolori took part at the funeral of Luciano Pavarotti in Modena and honoured him with a fly-past leaving green-white-red smoke trails.

[18] On the occasion of the first cruise in USA-Canada (1986), special cylindrical tip tanks were set up, with a capacity much higher than that of the original elliptical tip-tank.

[19][20] The name "Pony" was coined by the then Captain Zeno Tascio to remember the horse of Francesco Baracca[21] which is the sign of the 4th Wing, at the time 4th Airbase who was already preparing to take over the task PAN for the 1961.

[22]The Frecce Tricolori have three programs for performing acrobatics: high, low, and flat, depending on the weather conditions and the characteristics of the exhibition area.

[3] The high program is chosen when the cloud base is above 1,000 m and is characterized by the execution of the acrobatic figures entirely on the vertical plane; the low program is preferred instead when the clouds do not exceed 500 – 600 m and vertical manoeuvres are not carried out (such as looping or the bomb); finally, the flat variant includes low-level formation manoeuvres.

For several years, when possible, the PAN performances have ended with the complete line-up drawing a five km long flag of Italy in the sky while from the floor speakers, the voice of Luciano Pavarotti intones the finale of Nessun dorma for the entire duration of the passage.

The first realization of this manoeuvre took place in Pratica di Mare (frazione of Pomezia) during the farewell ceremony at the F-104 Starfighter and this earned the Frecce Tricolori the world record for the longest national flag ever made.

Also for this reason, on September 8, 2007, hurtling through the Modena sky, the Frecce Tricolori paid tribute to Pavarotti whose funeral he had just held.

[23][24] Only the best pilots have access to the Frecce Tricolori: each year one or two of them are chosen strictly among those who have more than 1,000 flight hours, and once they have entered they must follow a gradual insertion training program.