RSAF special livery

The Saudi National Day (Arabic: اليوم الوطني المملكة العربية السعودية‎ al-yawm al-waṭanī al-mamlaka al-ʿArabiyya as-Suʿūdiyya) is celebrated on 23 September 2021.

The day is to commemorate the renaming of the Kingdom of Nejd and Hejaz to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, by a royal decree from King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud in 1932.

It was made a national holiday by King Abdullah in 2005 and is celebrated this year for the 91st time. 

Since the last few years, it has become a tradition for several Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) aircraft to receive special colours and markings to commemorate the occasion.

As can be seen in the illustrations the theme this year is rather black. This year four fighter aircraft received various '91 years' and 'vision 2030' markings. The aircraft involved are: F-15C Eagle, F-15S Eagle, Tornado GR4 and a Typhoon F2. Besides the four fighters, at least one more aircraft, an Airbus A330-202MRTT, is decorated as well. No serials are known yet, please update us if you can and send the information to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

At various locations around the kingdom air shows are organized in the coming days (see illustration), but they seem to consist of a flypast of the marked aircraft, the Saudi Hawks and even some airliners of the national airline.

Also, F-15S/F-15SA and Tornado GR4s have been practicing the number '91' in a large formation with six Eagles making up the '9' and five Tonkas the '1'.

Photos by RSAF