Romanian Air Force Day

Today, July 20th, is an important day for all Romanians: they are celebrating both Saint Ilie, one of the most important religious celebrations over the year, and Romanian Air Force Day.

The tradition of celebrating Romanian Aviation and Romanian Air Force in July comes from the fact that, in the same month, 109 years ago, Aurel Vlaicu, one of the world aviation engineers and inventors, flew his self-made plane for the first time, over Romania.

Romanian Air Force is one of the traditional military branches of this country, which now tries to re-gain its former glory. Romania has recently purchased used F16 Falcon, an American multirole aircraft, and has signed a contract for buying additional multirole aircrafts of this kind from Portugal Air Forces.

Apart from these fighters, Romania also has some MIG-21 Lancers, which once were the only aircraft of the Romanian forces, and IAR helicopters, Romanian made.