Antonov AN26B Wake-Up Call
 

About 7.20 this morning whilst slowly realising that is was wake-up time, I heard what sounded like someone wielding a heavy-duty strimmer through dense vegetation. Gradually the sound changed to more of a harsh buzz-saw accompanied by resonance, all the while seeming to get closer. Hmm, I wondered... Grabbed my iPad from the bedside, fired up FR24 and there was an unidentified aircraft (as in no flight number etc) passing just north of me. Clicking on it revealed an AN26B, so now I know what people write about when they describe its unmistakable sound. Slowly, slowly the racket diminished as it passed overhead heading generally eastward. Later I checked FR24 history and it showed it departing from Tangier and seemingly heading for Birmingham. Presumably there would have been lots of folk in southern England and the Midlands cocking an ear and thinking "what on earth is that..."

From what I've heard, all Antonov turboprops are noisy.

I heard it this morning, saw it on downwind for Birmingham (from just inside where landing traffic turns base leg for 15.) Flight radar showed it as belonging to Ukrainian operator Cavok Air and the Jetphotos link showed a striking red and blue livery. But that was about 11am so must have been another one?
As the OP says, a very distinctive sound, but not uncommon going into Birmingham.

I just ran FR24 history function again and it landed at Birmingham 08.07. Tangier to Brum - a heavy load of dates & figs for Christmas? ;)

Tangerines for stockings. :O

Often followed by a smokescreen, we used to get them in at EMA all the time. In fact there used to be a couple based here.

Wait for the day (Or night) you will hear an AN-22. They sound like something coming from the end of the world.

Love that sound! Seems to be a regular between Brum and airports in Spain

That was an AN-12 - left Brum and came SE over London around 11am.

Amazing sound, the Antonov-owned example came over here enroute Shannon-Eastern Europe a couple of decades ago, thought it was an AN-12 out of Heathrow, nope it's the dot at the end of that vapour trail. On a second visit to my overhead it was inbound Bournemouth one evening, even descending through 19000' it was rattling my fillings.

Yup 22 used to pop in to EMA too.

Same engines on a Tu95 as an An22 I believe- certainly sound very similar as I discovered one night at Skopje airport Macedonia whilst deployed with an AAC helicopter unit on Op Essential Harvest.

Large noisey turboprop on approach caused much speculation as to its type- sounds like a Bear says I (only time I have ever heard one was at IAT). Materialised into an unmarked An22 which taxied to the Macedonian military side, a handy pair of NVGs allowed us to watch two BTR70s being unloaded.

Of course, we in the west don't make noisy turboprops any more.
Oops! I forgot about the A400M Atlas.:)

There was an An-12 doing cargo flights passing over Scotland during COVID times. Noisey is an understatement & probably made worse by the general lack of flights at the time.

The A400M is up there as well!

The Cavok Air AN-12 came past here when I was out with the dog at lunchtime. Sounded different enough to make me look it up.

The dog wasn't all that interested.

Had the luck to hear the An-12/22/24/26/32, Il-18, Electra, Transall, M28 etc on the apron, the A400 is way worse than any of those.

personally I always though the Bristol Frightener had a tone of its own - not loud but persistent -seemingly for days as it trundled across the sky

I have only just seen this thread but I heard the AN26B that morning too. It was the unusual noise that made me look at FR24. It gave no details but I did see that it came from Tangier but didn't say where it was going. I was surprised it ended up in Birmingham as it was heading east just north of Bournemouth when I heard it.

WGAF Dornier 28s used to crawl over here on their way home from visiting Brawdy, the sound of those Lycomings was audible for what seemed like hours...

Did the AN 22 survive the Russians? I read that it was located in Ukraine at the start when the AN225 was totaled. I can confirm that having heard the 22 the 12 and the RAF 400 over North Kent all sound just as noisy!
mmitch.

I believe the AN-22 was damaged but not to the point of being written off.