Big increase in military flights

The main players there being an EC35, the Lancaster and a Spitfire from the BBMF (might have been a Hurricane in the mix too), the 3 Hercs, a C17 Globemaster, a Poseidon P8 and 5 Typhoons, all coming into London at around 1000ft altitude. Rather better than Charlie got for his coronation😄

Two BAC strike masters just flew over North Bristol. Are Ecuador 🇪🇨 invading?

That’ll no doubt be these https://www.nwmas.com/air-displays/ I’m only a few miles from Hawarden so see them all the time.

Two days ago we witnessed what I thought was approx. 6 No. F22 fighter jets fly over Lake Windermere. Is this right? Or were they F35 lightnings?

Either way they were impressive and noisy 👌

If they made themselves visible, you could look them up on the replay here https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?r

Air Force One inbound.

What’s the other one just behind it? Airforce 2?

Staff and sat com apparently.

Thanks bikesandboots that website is fantastic. Checked it for time and date but no sign of the fast jets.

@didnthurt click the U button to filter to the interesting stuff

Cool, I’ll check it out.

We saw three F15s today over Windermere. Quite a treat while we were walking around Wray Castle’s grounds.

AF1 currently on its way to Lithuania.

Two Chinooks VERY low overhead, together with a police helicopter accompanying two green sea kings. Needless to say they did not appear on Flightradar and the skies were otherwise rather quiet overhead for a little while. This may be related to the above post 😉

The Met doing their bit on the way back

Things starting to slowly arrive at fairford ahead of this weekend&s airshow.

So, got buzzed by 2 twin tails passing low over the M6 around the Lake District today. Apart from the fact I nearly shat myself we couldn’t pick them up on ADSB. They were flying low and doing some tight turning so no doubt training, what do we reckon, F15?

I didn’t get a great look as I was driving but they looked like vertical tails which rules out a 22 and the wings looked less like a delta which makes me think F15 or even an SU27.

F15’s landing at Lakenheath fly over my house most days, very rarely visible on ADSB. Also make a lot of noise!

Not quite military but check the track on the po-po plane at the golf Open.

https://fr24.com/UKP153/31354ed6

At least one B2 Spirit just flew low over Gloucestershire, so I’m told. Must be heading to Fairford.

Just seen the two B2s over South Cerney going to Fairford. Mega low and rumbling

Lots of miltary jet operations in East Cambs & North Norfolk over the past week and bit. Much more than the usual activity out of Lakenheath and seem to be flying lower and faster than normal.

This week has seen lots of Top Gun stuff type over the North Sea:

And yesterday the Red Arrows were in Ayr:

Saw the Red Arrows very near mine on Friday, they were transiting to Blackpool via a couple of calling points. Got to the summit of a road climb and there was a small gaggle of folk there who’d all had the same idea!

After all of that, they didn’t display at Southport Air Show on Saturday due a short but intense and very local downpour which rendered the runway at Blackpool too wet to use.

The Lancaster went by only a few miles from mine yesterday on its way to Southport but frankly it was far too hot for me to be bothered riding out to try and see it.

I was watching the Red Arrows taking off from Ayr earlier, as they made their way via Carlisle Airport (and over our house in Brampton) to the GNR.  Their transponders appeared to be turned from Dumfries and Galloway.  Any idea why?

Their transponders appeared to be turned from Dumfries and Galloway. Any idea why?

They transmit on MLAT – which is aircraft ID only.

MLAT needs multiple receivers to give a location. Military and small aircraft (and Loganair bizarrely) are MLAT. Bigger aircraft transmit on ADS-B which gives ID, location, speed etc and only needs 1 receiver..

ADSB-exchange takes MLAT data from enthusiasts but a gap in coverage can result in the aircraft disappearing. Note: FlightRadar takes adsb only.

I suspect this is what happened:

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=43c440&lat=55.140&lon=-3.768&zoom=9.0&showTrace=2023-09-10&timestamp=1694340547

The Lancaster is circling just to the NW of Manchester Airport, heading SE to Woodford then down through Derbyshire if anyone is out that neck of the woods…

Lots of very noisy big aircraft during the night heading north west out of leeming or teeside Airport- always at night

@stirlingcrispin it was the air show this weekend in Ayr hence the traffic, saw the flying coffin dancing about and a (couple of?) Strikemaster(s) zooming around. Missed the Typhoon though ☹️

We were on the beach at West Kirby for the afternoon and had one Strikemaster (G-SOAF) come overhead, returning to Broughton from Ayr. It was the first time I’d seen it, despite one apparently being based at Broughton. Quite conspicuous – very, very loud and faster than most small planes we get buzzing about here. You could hear it almost all the way down to the airport 15 miles away. It came back out a short while later and did a lap at the Southport show before returning.

I see the two Broughton Strikemasters quite regularly. Last time I saw them was about 3 weeks ago, both of them were out. I think they’ve been out once since.

Here’s the Reds on Friday from my vantage point….

And here’s the Reds on Friday looking at me from their vantage point!

A Grumman Albatross, I’ve not seen one of them before!

Just had 2 Eurofighters fly directly over the house at about 8,000ft climbing to 14,000ft. Never had them like this before !

Looks like they went directly over Liverpool airport runway

edit – they have then flown directly over Peterborough , and there are quite a few fighter jets over the south east

Had an aviation spotter life ambition achieved yesterday!

I was a passenger as my wife was driving south on M6 through the Lakes south of Tebay J38. Just as we hit the valley floor past the junction, 2 x F35s dropped in, travelling head on towards us in the middle of the valley. Both passed directly overhead and as they did so banked hard right with contrails. I opened the car window at 70mph and the noise was still proper loud. Awesome.

I’ve always wanted to see a military jet on that classic Lakes valley section of the M6, still can’t believe we saw the F35s right there! 😀

Late comer to the thread. My contribution is this pair over Dursley going into Fairford.

Wow! When was this?

Must have been a couple of months ago, did a few circuits before disappearing over the Cotswold ridge towards Cirencester. We do have quite a bit of US stuff going in and out, Ospreys, a U2 and B52s recently.

We were walking in the Black Forest about 10 days ago and a lonely, presumably Luftwaffe, Tornado flew overhead but really really low. Probably 100m above us and  over the small town (Wolfach).

Apart from nearly involuntarily shitting myself due to sonic surprise (loved their first CD) I was amazed at the flying through narrow very twisty valleys at speed

The locals didn’t even look up so it must be a regular training route

We were walking in the Black Forest about 10 days ago and a lonely, presumably Luftwaffe, Tornado flew overhead but really really low.

Tornadoes just look right. Like an F16, it just looks fast and aggressive even standing still. That massive tail and the angled intakes.

It’s done well for a 1970’s / Cold War design. I’m just about old enough to remember them taking over from the Phantoms and (original) Lightnings and certainly from the Jaguars.

I remember a holiday in Scotland as a kid where they were just a constant presence, ripping through the valleys and low over the lochs. It drove my Mum mad but I loved it.

At least one B1-B Lancer out from Fairford:

Something a lot louder than usual just went past so looked it up and there was 3 not 1