Honduran Air Force
Fuerza Aérea Hondureña
Honduran Air Force patch
Founded	14 April 1931; 94 years ago (1931-04-14)
Country	Honduras
Type	Air force
Role	Aerial warfare
Size	16,500 personnel 86 aircraft
Part of	Armed Forces of Honduras
Motto	FAH
Anniversaries	14 April
Engagements	Football War Central American Crisis
Commanders
Comandante General	General de Brigada Javier Barrientos Alvarado
Insignia
Roundel
Fin flash
Aircraft flown
Attack	Cessna A-37
Fighter	Northrop F-5
Helicopter	Bell 412Bell UH-1Eurocopter_EC145MBB Bo 105
Reconnaissance	Super King Air
Trainer	Northrop F-5FEMB-312 TucanoMaule_Air
Transport	Cessna 208Piper PA-31Aero_Commander_500_familyLet_L-410_Turbolet

TheHonduras Air Force (Spanish:Fuerza Aérea Hondureña, sometimes abbreviated toFAH in English) is theair force ofHonduras. As such it is the air power arm of theHonduras Armed Forces.

The first Honduras military flying took place on 18 April 1921 in aBristol F.2b Fighter biplane flown by an American contracted pilot, while in 1923 the first government flying school was founded with the assistance of Italian investors.^[1] The forerunner of the modern air force, theEscuela Nacional de Aviación, or National Aviation School, came into being on 14 April 1931.

In 1938 it was renamed theEscuela Militar de Aviación y Fuerza Aérea Hondureña or Military Aviation School and Honduras Air Force, when its first combat aircraft were acquired. DuringWorld War II it fought against the Axis powers, between 1942 and 1944 performing anti-submarine patrols along its Caribbean coastline.

After the war the HAF re-equipped with aircraft fromUnited States Army Air Forces andRoyal Canadian Air Force stocks including fiveLockheed P-38 Lightnings and fiveBell P-63 Kingcobras which were its first high performance fighters. Honduras ratified theInter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance in 1947, and within the next 10 years the United States supplied new aircraft including 19Vought F4U Corsair fighter bombers, severalDouglas C-47 Skytrain transports, and sixNorth American AT-6C armed- and six T-6G advanced trainers.

In 1969 Honduras fought the one week longFootball War withEl Salvador. The HAF managed to successfully bomb the Salvadorean fuel supplies at Acajutla and Cutuco, and fight the enemy's air force out of the sky. Captain Fernando Soto, flying the Vought Corsair, shot down three Salvadoran aircraft, two Corsairs and a P-51 Mustang.^[2] Later it provided close air support to the Honduras Army. After the cease fire, both countries tried unsuccessfully to acquire their first jets to replace their old propeller-driven aircraft.

The political climate eventually changed and by the mid-1970s the HAF re-equipped with 10 old ex-YugoslavCanadair CL-13 Mk.4 Sabre, 16 ex-IsraeliDassault Super Mystère B2 and six newCessna A-37B DragonflyCounter-insurgency jets; plus severalBell UH-1B and UH-1H Huey Iroquois assault helicopters. The HAF was also reorganized, several new air bases were created and its name changed toFuerza Aérea Hondureña only. These airplanes were used during the 1980s confrontation with the Sandinista government of Nicaragua.

Later that decade these were augmented or replaced with 11 ex-USAF OA/A-37B Dragonflies, 12 ex-USAFNorthrop F-5E/F Tiger II interceptors, 12 newEmbraer T-27 Tucano armed trainers and four newCASA 101BB-02 attack airplanes. They are supported with five ex-USAFLockheed C-130A Hercules transports, five armedMD500D and 10 newBell 412SP utility helicopters, which are all in use to this day.^[3]

In October 2014 Honduras received an Embraer Legacy 600, 16-seat VIP transport aircraft, which was valued at US$14 million. This aircraft (FAH-001) arrived at Toncontín airport on 15 October and was donated to the Honduras Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Hondureña, or FAH) by Taiwan. The VIP aircraft would also be available for medical evacuation in case of an emergency. Plans to buy two new Brazilian Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano light fighters were also announced by the Honduran Foreign Ministry.^[4]

The FAH operates from four air bases atTegucigalpa,Comayagua,^[5]San Pedro Sula, andLa Ceiba. Additionally, three air stations located at Catacamas, Alto Aguán (bomb range) and Puerto Lempira airstrips serve as forward operations locations-FOL. Also a radar station operates at La Mole peak. All bases operates as dual civil and military aviation facilities. Comayagua is home to the Air Force Academy (Academia Militar de Aviación de Honduras Capitán Raúl Roberto Barahona Lagos).

The rank insignia ofcommissioned officers.

Rank group	General / flag officers										Senior officers						Junior officers
Honduran Air Force[12] v t e
							General de división		General de brigada		Coronel		Teniente coronel		Mayor		Capitán		Teniente			Subteniente

The rank insignia ofnon-commissioned officers andenlisted personnel.

Rank group	Senior NCOs																						Junior NCOs						Enlisted
Honduran Air Force[12] v t e
							Sargento mayor técnico		Sargento primero técnico		Sargento segundo técnico																Cabo técnico		Aero técnico primera clase						Aero técnico básico

• Hagedorn, Daniel P. "From Caudillos to COIN".Air Enthusiast, Thirty-one, July–November 1986. pp. 55–70.ISSN 0143-5450.
• Hagedorn, Daniel P. (September–October 1996). "Talkback".Air Enthusiast (65): 80.ISSN 0143-5450.
• Hoyle, Craig. "World Air Forces Directory".Flight International, Vol. 194, Number 5665, 4–10 December 2018.ISSN 0015-3710. pp. 32–60.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toAir force of Honduras.

• Official Honduras Air Force pages(in Spanish)
• Official Honduras Air Force Academy page(in Spanish)
• Honduras Air Arms - Scramble.nl
• Aeroflight - Honduran Air Force

• Air forces by country
• Military of Honduras
• Aviation in Honduras
• 1931 establishments in Honduras

• CS1 maint: archived copy as title
• CS1 Spanish-language sources (es)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from June 2017
• Articles containing Spanish-language text
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Commons category link is on Wikidata
• Articles with Spanish-language sources (es)