Low over NE Kent today

[Mutterer]

At around 11:30 this am a fighter flew over Whitstable, our house and Herne Bay.

I only got a rear view but noted 2 vertical fins and twin engines and a lot of noise

About a minute later another identical plane followed

Can anybody identify:

What they were (I suspect F16s)
Where they came from
Where they might be going :cool:

I only ask because since the closure of Manston this is very unusual activity for this area, apart from this year's Herne Bay Air Show

[Hawk98]

Sounds like F15s from Lakenheath

[MightyGem]

I suspect F16s
Nope. Single fin(tail). Probably as Hawk98 says.

[Mutterer]

Thanks for the answers, solved a little puzzle for me.

[susier]

How did I miss this. I suspect it was the day the gas engineer was over and the boiler was on full blast :rolleyes:


Mutterer, I think we need to move somewhere that gets this type of traffic all the time. Much more fun than a load of RYR 737s (no offence to 737 drivers) :)

[Mutterer]

Only moved here 4 years ago

Previous house was on flight paths for Biggin, Docklands Heathrowish and Gatwick (sort of).

Biggin Air Fair was a delight until they opened Docklands, after that; nothing

Came here when Manston was active, not that busy but the A380 tests were interesting.

On that subject does anybody know what happened to the parked airliners at Manston. They were there until quite recently, came past today - all gone

So sad

[susier]

Yes, I had wondered that also. Can only presume those that own the airfield now wanted them out of the way. Sigh

[SpringHeeledJack]

Would anyone know if they were scrapped on site or 'Drawn and Quartered' as it were and taken off to a museum/attraction etc ? Memory seems to say there were a couple of DC-8's, a DC-10, 747 when i was last there 4 years or so ago.
Perhaps the new owners of the airfield can rename it 'Misty Mansions' when all the houses are built…..:hmm:


SHJ

[DaveReidUK]

Would anyone know if they were scrapped on site or 'Drawn and Quartered' as it were and taken off to a museum/attraction etc ? Memory seems to say there were a couple of DC-8's, a DC-10, 747 when i was last there 4 years or so ago.

Most, if not all, of the stored airliners that were to be seen there 4-5 years ago were scrapped in situ:

9G-MKA (DC-8-55F)
N309TD (747-269B)
5X-JOE (DC-10-30F)
TF-AMC (747-2B3F)
A20-261/N707QJ (707-368C)

The nose of the DC-10 survives in Belgium:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ga-bob/12644024143

[treadigraph]

There is a pub in Ramsgate which has a couple of rows of old airliner passenger seats in its basement bar. I assume they came from something scrapped at Manston in the past. Rather a nice change from old church pews!

[SpringHeeledJack]

Thanks for the clarification. What happened to the very nice DC-8 that was resident for a good while, fully functional ;) , possibly 'African Stars' or similar in name ? Hopefully it flew away to pastures new.


SHJ

[DaveReidUK]

Thanks for the clarification. What happened to the very nice DC-8 that was resident for a good while, fully functional ;) , possibly 'African Stars' or similar in name ? Hopefully it flew away to pastures new.

Sadly, not. DC-8-62 ZS-OSI of Stars Away suffered the same fate as the others on my list, scrapped in February of this year.

http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/middle/2/6/2/2553262.jpg

[SpringHeeledJack]

What a pity…. :(

Perhaps the economics didn't add up even for routes in Africa or South America.



SHJ