View Full Version : Stealth Aircraft over Manningtree & Clacton.
KING6024
11th Sep 2019, 19:52
Whilst I didn't see this a/c myself there have been several reports on FB in the local area of a Stealth Bomber just before dusk.Anybody got any ideas ?? Reportedly low and slow.Actually on FB/Manningtree Shout Out.Edit.Now reported as a B2 operating out of Fairford.
Colin.
Big Eric
12th Sep 2019, 07:25
There have been 3 B2s operating from Fairford for the last couple of weeks, they are based at Whiteman AFB, Missouri.
Badger3434
12th Sep 2019, 16:16
One of them went low & slow over Banbury yesterday. And very quiet too!
Hot 'n' High
12th Sep 2019, 16:26
.................... and low level Southbound due S of Norwich on the Norfolk/Suffolk border late yesterday afternoon - was really quiet! Now, I know what they look like - but I still watched it till it was out of sight - just impressed by the shape/sound and thinking about its capabilities! As an aside, I wonder what East Anglia was like in the 1960s/70s? Today the odd F15, KC135 and Apache is your lot in central East Anglia with the odd Herc and Osprey thrown in, in a vain attempt to break the monotony of it all.... Ah well, I must be getting old and jaded!!!!! ;) H 'n' H
BirdmanBerry
12th Sep 2019, 19:03
3 times I've spotted one today in Cheltenham. Thankfully they fly right over my office and garden! Two headed out over the house last week together. Good times.
Doctor Cruces
18th Sep 2019, 14:59
.................... and low level Southbound due S of Norwich on the Norfolk/Suffolk border late yesterday afternoon - was really quiet! Now, I know what they look like - but I still watched it till it was out of sight - just impressed by the shape/sound and thinking about its capabilities! As an aside, I wonder what East Anglia was like in the 1960s/70s? Today the odd F15, KC135 and Apache is your lot in central East Anglia with the odd Herc and Osprey thrown in, in a vain attempt to break the monotony of it all.... Ah well, I must be getting old and jaded!!!!! ;) H 'n' H
I got to East Anglia in 1980 with the RAF at Eastern Radar. The sky was full of all sorts. Always something to see. F4, A10, SR71, U2 and TR1, Canberras of all Mk, F5e, Victors, Vulcans, Harriers, Jaguars, Buccaneers, Tornados plus all the interesting visitors from overseas.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-49727182
Hot 'n' High
21st Sep 2019, 11:42
I got to East Anglia in 1980 with the RAF at Eastern Radar. The sky was full of all sorts. Always something to see. F4, A10, SR71, U2 and TR1, Canberras of all Mk, F5e, Victors, Vulcans, Harriers, Jaguars, Buccaneers, Tornados plus all the interesting visitors from overseas.
:sad: that those days are long gone DC (from an enthusiasts POV). I was in the Cotswolds area in the 1970's until I joined up and, even there in a relative backwater (ie away from the "front line" as it were before I upset anyone from there!), we had a good range of aircraft including some non-trainer types. Wish I had kept my "spotters log books" from my school days - they'd be an interesting "social" insight into things as they were back then. Talking of that, just browsed this https://atchistory.wordpress.com/2018/11/14/eastern-radar-jatcru-raf-watton/ - I wonder if you recall any of the guys/gals featured from your time at Watton?
Mmmm, thankfully got some home-brew cider to bottle so that will tear me from my nostalgic pit of despair and cheer me up this arvo! :ok:
ShyTorque
21st Sep 2019, 14:43
One of them went low & slow over Banbury yesterday. And very quiet too!
Banbury, eh? Did they drop any improvements?
wiggy
21st Sep 2019, 18:26
:sad: that those days are long gone DC (from an enthusiasts POV). I was in the Cotswolds area in the 1970's until I joined up and, even there in a relative backwater (ie away from the "front line" as it were before I upset anyone from there!), we had a good range of aircraft including some non-trainer types.
Continuing with the thread drift - What helped lucky spotters spot so many military types back "in the day" wasn't just the sheer number of military airframes in the UK, it was also that prior until (?)1979 the UK low flying system concentrated low flying into just under twenty Low Flying Areas (LFAs) - they and the associated linking routes were the only places where low flying training was allowed. As a result if you lived under a LFA or route you got to see and hear all the fun...live elsewhere and .. nothing..
I was brought up and went to school right under the northern link route that joined LFA 7 (Wales) to LFA 4 ( SW Midlands/Cotswolds) and it was a fast jet spotters paradise in the late 60's & early 70's..I'm not sure how we ever got the school work done some days with the procession of Jags, Buccs, Harriers, F-4s, Canberras, JP's, Hunters etc etc etc that went roaring overhead...
Have a look at the chart on page 5 of this pdf and you'll get the idea.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/656298/UK_Military_Low_Flying-withdrawn.pdf
Hot 'n' High
23rd Sep 2019, 10:15
Continuing with the thread drift ............
Guilty as Charged, M'Lud! :p
Wiggy, the link you sent was fascinating. Combine LFA4 with Kemble, Little Rissi, Brize, Fairford, South Cerney, Hullavington & Aston Down not to mention Lyneham, Upper Heyford and "Green 1" a bit further afield and it was paradise, especially loafing in the grass on a hot Summers day waiting to see what was what.
Off course, the Kemble "fire dump" may have been visited once or twice for souvenirs....... :p How we felt like the SAS on a foray behind enemy lines! Must have got the taste for it as made it all legit when I joined up in ‘78! I wonder if I should have sent in retrospective 720Bs for the souvenirs so removed?
Enough of my illegal past though - H 'n' H is a paragon of virtue these days......... :} Honest Guv!!!!!!