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.
These two jets screamed their way into RAF Fairford on June 1st 2017 under the callsigns MYTEE96 and MYTEE51. They were indeed mighty! 96 arrived from the Middle East, while 51 made its way to the UK from the United States via Northern Europe.
This C-5M (callsign RCH965 – 87-0036) had just offloaded its cargo at RAF Fairford before departing to a local airfield. I was expecting a flat, slow climb out, and set myself up at the 09 end of Fairford’s runway. As you can see, this particular aircraft was clearly light, and by the time it got to the runway threshold was at least 1,500ft.
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.
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.
Rockwell B-1B Lancer (86-0127) returning to RAF Fairford on the 9th September 2016 under the call sign CROOK01.
This aircraft is from the 28th BS, part of the 7th OG Global Strike Command and was taking part in Ample Strike ’16 in the Czech Republic.
There was a fairly strong crosswind on this day, which caused the jets (and my camera) to be buffeted around a fair amount.
Lovely to see these impressive jets in the UK skies again, and hopefully they’ll become a more familiar sight in the coming years.
Rockwell B-1B Lancer (85-0089) from Dyess AFB, Texas, roars out of RAF Fairford on September 9th 2016 under the call sign CROOK02. The jet was so loud my mic wasn’t really able to cope with the noise.
This aircraft is from the 28th BS, part of the 7th OG Global Strike Command and was deploying from RAF Fairford for the International Sanicole airshow, Belgium (www.sanicole.com).
Check out 0:51 as the jet passes through the clouds.
A single Rockwell B-1 (86-0127) departing RAF Fairford on the 9th September 2016 under the call sign CROOK01.
This aircraft is from the 28th BS, part of the 7th OG Global Strike Command and was taking part in Ample Strike ’16 in the Czech Republic.
Jump to 1:28 for the take off roll.
A B-52H (60-0038) from the 307th Bomb Wing, 93rd Bomb Squadron from Barksdale, LA, lands back into RAF Fairford from a familiarisation flight as part of Ample Strike 2016 under the call sign SCALP99.
Rockwell B-1B Lancer 85-0089 from Dyess AFB, Texas, lands back into RAF Fairford on September 4th 2016 under the call sign CROOK01.
This aircraft is from the 28th BS, part of the 7th OG Global Strike Command and was taking part in a familiarisation flight in preparation for operation Ample Strike ’16 in the Czech Republic.