First Qatar Typhoon emerged in full paint scheme

There has been some activity with the first Al-Quwwat Al-Jawiyyah Al-Amiriyyah Al-Qatariyyah (QEAF, Qatar Emiri Air Force) Typhoons before, but on 9 May 2022 the first fully painted example took to the air from Warton Aerodrome (UK).

A BAE Systens test pilot with call sign Tarnish10 took serial QA404, the first single seater with RAF test serial ZR505 (construction number MS001), up for a flight.

On the tail a large symbol in Arabic is displayed, similair in line but different as on the F-15QAs and Rafale DQ/EQs.

The QEAF ordered 24 Typhoons in December 2017, together with nine Hawk Mk167 training aircraft. QEAF pilots are training with Royal Air Force (RAF) 12 Squadron Typhoons at RAF Coningsby. It is expected the first QEAF Typhoons will be delivered by August 2022.

On 25 November 2021, the first BAE Systems Typhoon destined for the QEAF, still in primer, departed for a test flight from Warton Aerodrome.

As the QEAF serial of the first single seat Typhoon is now known, the full serial batch of 24 aircraft and corresponding UK test serials is as follows. However, the exact type designation of the single seat and dual seat Typhoons is still to be confirmed. If you have more information on the type designation, please let us know at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

QA400 until QA403, test serial ZR501 until ZR504 (c/n MT001 - MT004) for the dual seat Typhoons
QA404 until QA423, test serial ZR505 until ZR524 (c/n MS001 - MS020) for the single seat Typhoons

Photos by: Simon Pearson-Cougill