PPRuNe Forums - High flying tandem jets above the midlands this afternoon

PPRuNe Forums (https://www.pprune.org/)

- Spectators Balcony (Spotters Corner) (https://www.pprune.org/spectators-balcony-spotters-corner-52/)

- - High flying tandem jets above the midlands this afternoon (https://www.pprune.org/spectators-balcony-spotters-corner/559886-high-flying-tandem-jets-above-midlands-afternoon.html)

tdubya

14th Apr 2015 14:40

High flying tandem jets above the midlands this afternoon

I looked out of my window and saw what I thought was a commercial jet high up in the sky with twin trails. Something about the trails caught my eye until I realised there were two planes flying close to each other.

They came from roughly 90 degrees east of Birmingham and headed in a straight line westwards. Nothing on my Flight 24 app. Any ideas what they might have been ?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...8/IMG_4029.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...8/IMG_4032.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/.../IMG_4032r.jpg

Big Eric

14th Apr 2015 17:14

Just a couple of Typhoons out of Coningsby, nothing special.

tdubya

14th Apr 2015 18:06

Thank you Eric :)

I've never seen these flying so high before so it was special for me. By posting the pictures here I was able to have my curiosity satisfied too :)

Diverskii

14th Apr 2015 20:07

Glad I wasn't going mad. Was sat in the garden and saw them directly overhead. Checked FR24 etc and nothing so assumed military.

Nice to know what it was.

sunnybunny

16th Apr 2015 19:04

Where I live at the extreme west of west mids we get a lot of military traffic. Some time ago they used to show up on FR24 and I could see them going to Wales, presumably the Mach Loop. But they haven't shown up on flight radar for quite a while but I still can hear them going over.

Usually it's a bit below commercial traffic but that pair the other day were very high, presume no commercial meant they could fly higher.

Wycombe

16th Apr 2015 22:13

There are vids online of Typhoons transitting to the Wales LFA's at FL400+, so they are probably going over the top of the commercial traffic on occasions.

TEEEJ

20th Apr 2015 12:15

Flt Lt Tim Clement, an RAF Typhoon Pilot, reveals in interview.

Quote:

Equally, we usually transit across the UK at 40,000ft+, which means we are above all the airway traffic and can reach anywhere by taking a direct route, so this is both quick and efficient. The trick though is coming down from altitude as, if we select idle and point the aircraft five degrees nose down, we will still go supersonic. "We have to roll the aircraft inverted and pull back hard on the stick to unload all the energy and can then spiral downwards without breaking the sound barrier.

From

Global Aviation Resource

tdubya

26th Apr 2015 06:37

Thanks for the replies which I've only just seen. For some reason the alerts are not working (probably Spam settings on my email)

I did find out the next day that a couple of Typhoons intercepted a couple of Russian planes. Could it have been these two ?

HEATHROW DIRECTOR

26th Apr 2015 08:55

Most unlikely as Russian aircraft operate outside UK airspace and there would be a lot of panic if they were over land.

TEEEJ

26th Apr 2015 20:27

Tdubya wrote

Quote:

I did find out the next day that a couple of Typhoons intercepted a couple of Russian planes. Could it have been these two ?

No. The two Typhoon that were scrambled for the Russian aircraft were from RAF Lossiemouth, Scotland. The two Tu-95 Bear H came down into the North Sea and only the RAF Lossiemouth Typhoons were required. RAF Coningsby Typhoons were not required and were not scrambled.

All times are GMT. The time now is 11:19.