Military plane? [Image]

reply to post by getreadyalready


it is not uncommon for military air craft to run a bit rich , and run a bit louder than civilian aircraft .

after reading a bit , it is not a helicopter refueler ...
but it is a stratigic refueler... like an air force one , or AWAC.

if you have survaliance aircraft up high and out of sight , the last thing you want is to con trails running togather... which explains the high over cast or bad weather flights....

what is odd is the altitude .... unless the system that is being refuels is automated... and only sees above a altitude / enabled parameters of targeting and detection .

From September 18th:
www.flyertalk.com...

was wondering if anyone else was at MSP today and saw 2 Vickers VC10's take off?

They look like military aircraft, assuming RAF, and was wondering if anyone knew what they are doing in MSP.
...
Neither show up in flightaware so I am assuming they were military.

There a plenty of videos here from the last month of the VC10.
www.youtube.com...
There's an onboard one aswell.

that 4 engin photo is a stratigic ... the thing it would refuel...
no windows doesn't mean anything beyond it wants to be invisable ....

these are not passinger air craft...

but air craft don't fly that low with out a good reason... like landing .... and these guys don't look like they are

Could be training esp if that is a tanker, the low figure of 8 patten would fit that I think, choppers fly low usually and they are slow in comparison to a jet (of course they can match speed to refuel - the tanker slows right off and the chopper like a Chinook pulls the stops out)

The tanker would have to do a fair amount of loitering in the area hence the figure 8's...

Actually now I've typed that it looks like all the whurly birds get refuelled from something like a C-130 (would that be KC-130?)... So it's probably not there for that?

Weird people are seeing this everywhere though - maybe it's some way to do a survey? Ground penetrating radar? Looking for oil/gas alien bases?? lol

Low cloud cover instrument failure training - you know being able to fly from just looking out of the window? There could be a pilot in there with very white knuckles and sweaty palms and the instructor somehow blocks his view to all the instruments??

I suppose if it's military and training you could guess all day, some of the things they train for a pretty darned specific.

I still like the idea of a ground penetrating survey - they have satellites that can do it, why not something a little more localised? Maybe they are confirming 'finds' from the sats - that could explain the repeated behaviour in separate places (if that is actually the case).



[edit on 15/9/2009 by Now_Then]

Personally i see nothing really out of the ordinary... I hope I don’t come across as rude (because I mean no offence) but are people really surprised to see an airplane (which are designed to fly from country to country) in other parts of the world?

The military have regular training exercises all around the world and these exercise require fuel.

I wouldn’t jump to the “searching for alien bases” theory just yet

Well I found it interesting because I have never seen this aircraft in my life, and yet it flew over my house in the same month it appeared in two places in America and in the UK.
The one the OP and I saw had black smoke coming out of it and had no markings, yet we're on other sides of the world. Wikipedia makes it out like there aren't many of these craft left and they are only used for military.

Originally posted by Muckster
Personally i see nothing really out of the ordinary... I hope I don’t come across as rude (because I mean no offence) but are people really surprised to see an airplane (which are designed to fly from country to country) in other parts of the world?

The military have regular training exercises all around the world and these exercise require fuel.

I wouldn’t jump to the “searching for alien bases” theory just yet

No but I like planes! they can fly!
I like cake too! It's yummy!

reply to post by Muckster


Well I wouldn't jump to searching for alien bases....ever...but, in 9 years living near this airport, and obtaining my Private Pilot License, and hanging out near the airport, I have never seen this large of an aircraft touchdown here! So, that makes it unusual! And, I have seen AF1 here! I also saw the FedEx jet crash here! (Actually I arrived shortly after the crash, but it was still on fire!)

When this plane was maneuvering, it was getting the attention of people on the street! They were pulling over to watch or snap pictures, because it was so large and loud!

So, while I agree that we shouldn't jump to conclusions, the event was certainly out of the ordinary, and to hear that it is happening all over the world only adds credence to the peculiarity of it!!

Wow - lots of responses and yes, looks like you guys have spotted the exact craft - and the link to the flyertalk forum seems spot on.

I work in my loft/attic with the window open so I am very aware day after day of whats going on out there. This was unusual in the sense of how close it was to a town and how low it was (as you can see from the shot with the roof top) taking into account there is not a runway around - we just don't get jets flying over unless they are 30,000 odd thousand feet up and on their way to London!

There is still a lot of noise up there but it sounds more like helicopters (which we do get a few buzzing around, but not normally this many).

I will keep an ear and eye open for anymore but it seems like others have seen similar to me. It probably is just an exercise of some sort but I still find it unusual how low it was.

reply to post by getreadyalready



OK fair enough... it’s just that I’m guessing that when the military have training exercises they do not always announce where they are going to be and they are not always held in the same locations.

This would mean that from time to time people will report what they think is unusual military activity.

The fact that the plane has been seen in the UK, US and Australia does not surprise me because nations often have joint training exercises.


I openly admit that I am no expert though... these are just my thoughts on the matter.

I will be watching this thread just to see how this unfolds... you never know

Britain's VC-10 Fleet

No idea why a VC-10 should spend time circling around Southampton area. Maybe testing new equipment, training or something? Doesn't sound particularly insidious to me.

Can't say I've seen any round these parts for a while - but that means nothing. I did see a US C-5 Galaxy earlier in the year though, circling over the Vale of Evesham. That turned out to mean .......... absolutely nothing. Impressive to watch though. A couple years back there was a E-3 AWAC also on a big circle - but that was a couple of days before the the Fairford Airshow. Overall though not a lot of military activity in these parts at all.

reply to post by Essan


When i was about 16 i went for a holiday on the Norfolk broads with my Girlfriends (of the time) family. One night we decided to sneak away from the boat and find a quiet field for a bit of... err... you know

Anyway... It was about 11:30 at night and apart from the moonlight it was completely black. While we were getting busy in this field I started to hear a strange sound... At first I didn’t pay much attention but within seconds the sound was so loud it was getting painful. I remember looking at my girlfriend and seeing this odd look on her face... All of a sudden we were hit by this extremely bright light... Terror immediately took over us and we both started to run... Bathed in bright light and this screaming noise ringing in our ears... My heart was thumping and I honestly thought, for a couple of seconds, that I was either gonna get beamed up or blown up

We run for a bit and I stopped to look back ... it was then that I could see the silhouette of a C-5 Galaxy landing. I remember laughing nervously when I noticed that my girlfriend had left her Bra and top in the field and was now standing in front of me topless, out of breath and crying.

Turns out we had decided to have our fun in a field that backed onto a military air base




Anyway... sorry for going a bit off topic but when Essan mentioned the Galaxy it reminded me of something i had long forgotten

A few hours on and I am shocked at the amount of helicopters whizzing past, at least one every 10 mins (unless its the same one!!), my issue is visibility is so low now I cant see them....

I believe I read that the U.S. was having a "global exercise" recently. Maybe with other countries? Or maybe the chemtrail tankers are getting more ballsy and flying low level missions now!

[edit on 15-9-2009 by suspekt]

reply to post by ANTHONY33


Looks like an old DC-8 tanker...


upload.wikimedia.org...

Not really sure what the fuss is about. As stated, these look like VC-10 tankers used by the RAF out of Brize Norton, which isn't really that far from Southampton if you're doing a few hundred miles an hour!

As for sightings in other countries, can you be sure these are the exact same aircraft? Even if they were, the RAF operates all over the globe, so it's hardly a shock.

Originally posted by Nventual
I'm not sure if this is connected or not but around the same time my friend told me that he was driving down the freeway that leads to the airport and he noticed that no cars were coming from the opposite direction. About 5 minutes later he sees 2 police motorbikes go by, then nothing. 2 minutes later he sees 2 police cars, then nothing. A minute later he sees two unmarked sedans, and behind that he saw 2 black tinted vans and behind that was more police bikes.

There was nothing on the news and at the time I tried finding information but couldn't find anything.
Whoever it was they are more important than the prime minister, because not even his motorcade is as seriously protected as that. There were no flags on any of the vehicles either.

[edit on 15/9/09 by Nventual]

You know I saw something similar not too long ago here in the states. We were heading to visit family to Freeport, Tx (a city not too far from Houston were I live.) and we saw what we think was a C135 flying rather low. We didn't think much of it. Then further down the road we noticed no cars were coming from the opposite direction. We saw two police bikes pass by and further down we saw two more police bikes on the freeway with the traffic stopped and some black trucks on the "on ramp." I still did not think much of it till today when I read these posts. Maybe, like someone posted before me, its some sort of military exercise. I'm quite intrigued now.

By the way the plane looked like it was heading towards downtown Houston. I could not be sure if it actually went as far as Houston but it was heading that way. The particular stretch of freeway we were on when all this happened was pretty straight and the plane seemed to be flying almost above it.
Like I said I didn't think much of it at the time cause we have Ellington Field and NASA pretty close here but now you've got me thinking.

The VC-10 will tend to be louder than most other aircraft mainly because the engine technology is from the 1950s. For this reason it will also put out a significant amount of black smoke. FYI, jet engines do not have an adjustable mixture - they don't operate that way. How far we have advanced in jet engines is simply astounding...

[edit on 17/9/2009 by C0bzz]

Check this out ATS thread

Another UK showing of this plane looping over Maidenhead.... what's it all about?