Operation Brandy, lots of Brandy

It is not exaggerating to cite the case that the Italians and the F-104G pilots that passed through Torrejon and with the ones that the had contact on their trips to Italy for the Navites program, the were crazy about the Spanish cognac, the Brandy.

When the Spaniards went to Italy they would take a bottle as a gift for the line mechanic that took care of them and at the same time they would bring the famous Carpano “Punt e Mes”.

It is to say that the Italians were more practical than all of that and from the beginning started to take on each trip all the bottles that could fit in the four aircraft that they bring, and they would distribute later to their own Squadrons as if was gold cloth.

The number of bottles that the Italians were able to put inside the four airplanes reached the incredible number that even the designer of the airplane could not believe.

Little by little the established a contest to see who could put more cognac bottles inside the four airplanes.

It was impressive to see how they would put bottles in the most incredible spaces of the airplane, in openings supposedly could not be opened, in the ammunition boxes, in the armament receptacle and the most unsuspected places were carefully filled with bottles between boxes and plastics.

Normally, a pickup truck would come with about 2,500 kilos in bottles and the four Italians the would spend about fours hours preparing Operation Brandy before takeing off. The landings had to be the most softly possible to prevent broken bottles and spilling liquid.

Little by little, the numbers kept going up until they reached 2,500 bottles, being the Diaboli Rossi Squadron who accomplished the record and in what form.

The form in which the accomplished was by bringing the fuel Pylons made specially fitted to transport the cognac instead of fuel. This was how far they were willing to go, they were capable to scarify fuel for such a long trip for cognac.

The pylons had been converted from fuel tanks to storage for bottles, with several openings that could be opened with a hook and then filling them by hand with boxes and bottles.