Noisy propliner over Midlands just now
 

Four engine, high wing, chubby fuselage, low tailplane - NOT T-tail.

Smoky exhaust and very noisy. Thin red line along fuselage. Fairly slow, due west over South Herefordshire just now.

Any ideas? certainly a new shape to my piece of sky.

Antonov AN-12? They operate fairly regularly into East Midlands and other airfields.

FR24 shows UR-CAH AN12 just routed that way, and currently (2106L) off Devon coast heading SSW.

Came out of BHX as quite a few of these do.

Thank you - AN12 images confirm! Noisiest turboprop over here at that sort of altitude since the Bear came to Fairford.

Hope you get to hear the AN-22 some time - wonderful noise!

Audible inside our house when it overflew London at FL 250 a few days ago !

Was it really an AN-22?

Indeed, has the AN-22 been over the UK again?

I've heard (but only seen one) several AN-12s heading NE over London in the last week or so.

No, this is an An-12 thread.

Seems to come over a couple of times a week at present, in the evening, from Morocco (various points) to Gothenburg in Sweden.

WHBM, pity it would be good to see the AN-22 again - I believe it is airworthy again.

Heathrow Director, my post at #5 was along the lines of "if you think the AN-12 is noisy...!" :}

The An-22 came overhead London at about 1am maybe 10 years ago. It was operating from Brize Norton to the Middle East, presumably with some outsize cargo. It was probably audible for some 10 minutes, maybe more.

It's the same powerplant and props as the old Ilyushin 114 long range passenger aircraft, and the Tupolev 16 Bear bomber, still very much around, so the sound can still be experienced..

AN-12 UR-CAH just gone over heading east towards Dover - heard it coming miles away and a wonderfully clear view - at about 20000 apparently.

Reminds me of the T-34 turboprops on the C-133s that used to cruise over SE England in the late '60s. A lovely bass growl that deepened to a drone as the aircraft disappeared from view.

Ahhh nostalgia. I remember them well. I also recall seeing and hearing a B-36 over southern England too.

Wow, born too late for that treat I'm afraid!

Too late for the -36, but it's possible I heard C-133s droning over Lands End VOR when I woz very small indeed.

There's a video on Youtube showing the last airworthy C-133 landing at Travis AFB (?) a few years ago, on delivery to the museum there after a ferry flight from Alaska. You get the drone!

Transalls make a good noise too, still get the odd GAF example over here.

Treaders

I'm sure you enjoyed the noise earlier - around noon BST today - another An12 - UR-KDM from Cork to Chania at around FL200 - right overhead south London. Now still lumbering south east over the Balkans according to FR24. Such a distinctive noise and once you are tuned into them still surprisingly frequent in this neck of the woods

I did indeed! Audible only this time though, total cloud cover.

I did some work for a young submarine officer recently, who said that the noise from a "Bear" was audible when the sub. was submerged.

I think I was about 4 years old (early 50s) when I saw a B36. I rushed indoors and told my brother I'd seen a plane with 6 engines on the back of the wings.
He hit me saying there was no such thing!
I heard a 'heavy' turboprop the other evening. There was very high cloud and I could see a shape roughly north east from my home (towards Heathrow direction) at high level but couldn't make out the type so assumed it was an Atlas out of Brize going to Germany (or maybe somewhere a bit further away)