x2 B-2A (MYTEE51 & 52) recover into RAF Fairford 9th July 2017

It was a busy day for bombers on June 9th at RAF Fairford, and was the first time I’d seen (and filmed) all three of Global Strike Command’s heavy bombers on the same day.

These two aircraft were flown from Whiteman AFB, Missouri, visited a bombing range in the UK before recovering into Fairford. These aircraft were 82-1068 Spirit Of New York (MYTEE51) and 88-0329 Spirit Of Missouri (MYTEE52).

The famed B-2 Spirit ‘Stealth Bomber’ entered service in 1997 and they still look absolutely cutting edge to my eyes, despite the fact that they celebrate 20 years in service this year. Happy birthday B-2.

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x2 B-1B s (BONE01 & 02) launch from RAF Fairford 9th July 2017

Shortly following the B-52 on the same day, and just after 6am on a chilly summers morning, the regular dawn chorus of rural Gloucestershire was accompanied by the sound of two B-1Bs (85-0084 BONE01 and 86-139 BONE02) out to a Baltops mission somewhere out in the Baltic Sea.

These aircraft come from the 34th BS United States Air Force at Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota.

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B-52H (BUFF01) launch from RAF Fairford 9th July 2017

Just after 6am on a chilly summers morning, the regular dawn chorus of rural Gloucestershire was accompanied by the sound of 8 × Pratt & Whitney TF33s powering this mighty B-52 Stratofortress (60-0002 callsign BUFF01) out to another Baltops mission somewhere out in the Baltic Sea.

This aircraft comes from the 2nd BW United States Air Force at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana.

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Lockheed U-2s DRAGON21 into RAF Fairford May 2017

This was a stunning landing in what were marginal crosswind conditions for this notoriously difficult to land aircraft.

This particular jet is from the 9th RW at Beale AFB in the USA, and was flying with the callsign DRAGON21. In this video you can hear the chase car talking his colleague down, which is standard practice in U-2 ops. Fantastic to hear some personality coming across the airwaves too! ‘Good Job Dragon, Welcome to England. The wind was a bit dodgy up back there”!

Apologies for the text overlay titles. I’ve had to add it since some people have been ripping off my work on YouTube and elsewhere. If you want to use any of my footage in a project please just ask.

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B-1B returning from Sanicole Air Show 09.09.2016

Rockwell B-1B Lancer (85-0089) returning to RAF Fairford on the 9th September 2016 under the call sign CROOK02.

This aircraft is from the 28th BS, part of the 7th OG Global Strike Command and was taking part in the International Sanicole airshow, Belgium (www.sanicole.com).

There was a fairly strong crosswind on this day, which caused the jets (and my camera) to be buffeted around a fair amount. You can see the commander skilfully working the jet through the wind for a gentle landing on runway 27.

Lovely to see these impressive jets in the UK skies again, and hopefully they’ll become a more familiar sight in the coming years.

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