Of course we have airshows and dedicated teams for that.

There are the patrouille Suisse, patrouille de France, Frecce Tricolori...

After the Ramstein Air Base disaster security was tightened a lot though.

I’ve seen PdF perform, they are pretty impressive in the maneouvers they execute.

It is worth mentuoning though they do all that in trainer jets, not actual fighter jets. Which is not that cool. I would loved it more of they would fly actual fighters.

> I would loved it more of they would fly actual fighters.

For that I'd say it's that France is saving its actual fighters for combat units because it doesn't has enough jets, unlike the US

Never heard anybody mention them while in the US they seem to be common and well known.

As well as private aviation has a different standing in the US in my experience.

Saying "not a thing" might have been to absolute, but my impression is that flight shows are much more known and I would assume more common in the US.

There are many airshows in Europe, including the world’s largest military airshow (RIAT in the UK).

UK list, for example: https://www.air-shows.org.uk/2025/04/uk-airshow-calendar-202...

Rest of Europe: https://www.air-shows.org.uk/2025/04/european-airshow-calend...

It has absolutely been a thing in Europe and there have been numerous accidents involving Russian and European aircraft at events like the Paris Airshow.

Peak European comment

You should pause more before speaking of 'things in Europe' as if wherever you are is all of 'Europe'.

I visit a small western French city nearly every year that has an airshow fly out of their small airport (with a nearby French fighter base), yearly, with aircraft spanning WWII era fighters to flyovers from the Patrouille de France and a Rafale.

This, from what I see, is pretty much identical to many USA 'airshows'.

I guess the half dozen airshows my dad took me to as a kid just happened in my head.