Media Kit

Paco Chierici flew A-6E Intruders and F-14A Tomcats off Navy carriers, then spent ten more years flying the F-5 as an adversary pilot, playing the bad guy so fleet fighter pilots could train against a real threat. Today he's an Airbus A-350 captain on long-haul international routes. He's the author of Lions of the Sky and the forthcoming Like Fire From Heaven, and the filmmaker behind Speed And Angels.

Francesco "Paco" Chierici has spent more than 25 years in the cockpit. On active duty in the U.S. Navy he flew the A-6E Intruder and F-14A Tomcat, deployed from Somalia to Iraq, and flew off USS Ranger, Nimitz and Kitty Hawk. He then flew the F-5 Tiger II for ten years as a Navy adversary pilot. Along the way he logged about 3,000 hours and 400+ carrier landings. Today he flies the Airbus A-350 as a captain on international routes.

He writes about that world from the inside. As a contributor and later editor at Fighter Sweep, he wrote the first published account of the 2004 USS Nimitz encounter, in March 2015. His debut novel, Lions of the Sky, follows Navy fighter instructor Sam "Slammer" Richardson and his last class of students on their way to F/A-18s and the fight over the South China Sea. It drew praise from former Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus and Navy SEAL turned bestselling author Brandon Webb. The sequel, Like Fire From Heaven, continues the Slammer Richardson series.

He created and produced Speed And Angels, an award-winning feature documentary about two young aviators chasing the F-14, and created the F-14 Speed And Angels campaign for DCS World. He has provided live aviation analysis for CBS News and ABC7, and lives in Northern California.