UKH

Saw a twin prop plane on the west of Scotland a couple of days ago. I've not seen one like that before, it looked like a V-22 Osprey that I found on the internet. Anyone know if they would be around or what else it would have been?

Only saw it briefly so didn't get a chance to take a photo.

There are a few US ospreys based at Mildenhall and so mostly hang around Southern England and Wales.

However there was Exercise Strike Warrior off North-West Scotland which did include US Ospreys and a shedload of other hardware so quite probable you could have seen one.

Tar ADSB website is quite good for seeing whats around since unlike some of the other sites it doesnt auto hide military stuff (although they can choose not to switch on the gear which it picks them up with).

Was told by a friend that they spotted an Osprey in the Lakes a few weeks ago so maybe they have moved about recently.

Lots of them operating/transiting over North Yorkshire for the last couple of years so no reason why not further afield. They're very loud and distinctive sounding.

jk

they have been quite common here in the last 2 or 3 years.  They land up near Cross Fell, thought to be dropping people off - an ideal infiltration area would be against a defending force on Warcop Ranges.

Walking home round Heughscar Hill towards Askham on my home further east after 2 irreparable punctures 2 Ospreys passed very very low overhead en route for that area a year or so ago - very impressive.

The Atlas is a somewhat less frequently seen visitor.

I've seen one flying over south Cumbria heading towards the Lakes. Very odd looking plane with the big twin props.

I've seen osprey flying, unmistakeably distinctive planes. AFAIK they are nearly only used by USMC (US Marine Core) aside from a very small number in USAF for special Ops and Japan. Some other users have signed up to purchase but if you see one flying chances are about 95% it's USMC and 4 or 5% it was USAF. When you say West of Scotland, do you mean Kintyre Islay Arran kind of area, as there is a low level corridor (for unpressurised aircraft like helicopters, Osprey, etc) between Norther Ireland (e.g. Belfast) and Glasgow/Edinburgh/Inverness for military aircraft that goes that way

A friend who lives in line of sight of the area where they put down has seen them tilting the wings/props vertically for landing. 

We've recently moved in near Tebay and they fly quite low, right over the house. I'd say a frequency of at least once per week over the last two months.  Mech engineer living with former RAF cadet and uotc, we both get quite excited when they fly by.

Spotted a big transporter plane up by Penrith a few weeks ago too, that might have been the Atlas mentioned upthread.

UK bought two, used for counterterrorism ops/SAS according to Google.

We were near Arisaig. I think there is an exercise on just now, lot of activity.

Thanks everyone for the replies.

 This is so funny - two flew over Belper last week I couldn't believe my eyes!

This story appeared on the Beeb a while back - Osprey stripping the surface of Addenbrooke's helipad while taking off: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-56862258

From a purely geeky plane spotter point of view if you look here https://globe.adsbexchange.com/ you can often see them up around Cambridgeshire but they do get around a bit!

In the UK the odds are the other way round. The only ones permanently based here belong to the USAF special operations at Mildenhall although in this case since there was a naval exercise with one of the US amphibious assault ships which carries Ospreys it was probably marines.

Thank you , I stand corrected

I saw an Osprey flying over Eckington, SE of Sheffield a week or two ago. I'd only seen one at an air show previously. They are very distinctive so I'm sure it was one as nothing else looks very similar. I don't think I've seen other military aircraft flying there before so I guess it was transitting back down to Suffolk if that's the only place they are based.

A pair came over nottingham a couple of weeks ago.  Unusual enough to get a story on the local news website 

My wife described a pair flying over Helensburgh late morning on Wednesday. Presumably the ones you saw, from the timing.

Nottinghamshire Live?

My impression is that there's been significant increased military activity over County Durham so far this year.

As well as the obligatory V-22 overflights, we've had quite a few "race track" contrails from AWACS orbiting, and recently Cobham have started flying 4 Falcon jets out of Teeside in racetrack patterns around the coast up as far as Dundee.  They have some new MoD contract and it looks like they're performing intensive ELINT/EWS testing, with other military aircraft taking trips out to their patrol zones.  Three of them were patrolling segments off the coast yesterday, I imagine various other planes and perhaps boats or subs were out parading their emissions for them. 

https://www.radarbox.com/data/flights/ZODIAC51

https://www.radarbox.com/data/flights/ZODIAC52

https://www.radarbox.com/data/flights/ZODIAC53

54 was out to Edinburgh the day before - https://www.radarbox.com/data/flights/ZODIAC54

We've also had a lot of high altitude overflights by pairs and quads of fighter jets.

I don't know if it's more active than normal, or if the otherwise much quieter skies combined with ideal contrail forming weather for much of March and April has made the normal activity seem more prominent.

Woah there! Just had to look this 'plane' up.

Are you sure thats a plane?

I think it's all to do with vaccine 5G countermeasures at Spadeadam!

saw a couple of the Ospreys in N Wales in 2019 coming over  Cloggy.

There's been an unusual amount of military aircraft activity over my part of Notts recently, and we get more than average overhead. 

Never seen one of those things though.

Cool, eh?  They also sound really weird!

There's been lots of military exercises starting from Prestwick throughout May.

low-flying Hercules over Haweswater last friday..

Probably, or West Bridgford wire. Not exactly pulitzer material

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Does it wear its underpants on the outside? When I saw one flying it had its props tilted forward like a plane. It still looks odd as the props are much larger relative to the fuselage than conventional planes.

once you've heard one and seen it you can recognise it by ear, just like a chinook or the Air ambulance

I saw one of those recently over southwest Glasgow, in airplane mode rather than chopper mode. Had no idea what it was, thanks for this thread. So why are there suddenly loads to be seen?

UK-based Ospreys regularly fly around the UK.

Track aircraft using:

https://globe.adsbexchange.com/

Hit the 'U' button at the top to restrict the search to military planes.

A related website I found recently when going down the ADS-B and transponder triangulation rabbit hole - Dictator Alert - https://dictatoralert.org

Saw two of them a fortnight ago flying through the Gatesgarth Pass by Haweswater.

Nice...

I seem to spot a Danish geosurvey plane, flying poorly optimised swath patterns, or the plane checking Heathrow's VOR navigation beacons... Plus the odd U2, flying East...

Isn't "Joint warrior" operating at the moment? 

Horrible, terrifying unpleasant machines with pipes, cables and places to crack your head on everywhere. The only things I like flying in less are CH53s.

That said, they make good taxis. 

Very impressive aircraft, I’ve seen them a few times in Snowdonia. One was flying almost alongside me whilst I was driving along Dyffryn Mymbyr around a week ago, sounds like they’ve been pretty active recently. 

Yes, seen them flying around Herefordshire….

We had one overfly us (Cumbrian coast / Solway Firth). Impressive bit of kit.

We saw one flying over Sennen beach in Cornwall last summer. It was clearly on exercise and we watched in amazement as it tilted its rotors whilst circling overhead. Never seen anything like it! 

My son then nonchalantly told me that he had one on GTA which only cost him two million pounds! 

Probably the pair nesting on the Glaslyn...

Come to think about it, an unsettling name for a plane. Does it plummet into the sea at high speed & come out with a fish in its talons?

Have seen a pair of these several times lately over South Lakes. Thought they were some kind of weird looking drone.

This has really turned in to a V-22 appreciation thread.

I read Dale Brown's Hammerheads back in 1990; it was another 17 years before the aircraft actually entered service.  Seems like it wasn't the simplest thing to get flying...

The new V-280 looks even stranger in airplane mode in terms of giant props - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_V-280_Valor

I'm pretty disappointed that 31 years later this is the closest we've got to a gyrodyne, I'd expected the future to have things like the V.E.N.O.M. Switchblade.  One did make a fictional appearance as the Whispercraft in 2000's "The 6th Day".

Other things not bettered from 1990 include Guru Josh's "Infinity".

Hah. It just flew over again. G-GNSS, callsign VOR07

Not only cheaper than the real thing but the GTA version has three cannon.

https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Avenger_(plane)

During Donald Trump's 2018 presidential visit they spent a while circling around London over a couple of days. Not sure if they were on standby in case of emergencies or just didn't have anywhere to land and wait, but it was pretty cool to see them go past each time

In their early days of development they did have a habit of plummeting downwards with several fatal crashes and subsequent redesigns.

Yes, I remember reading about the crashes. Sad as like you say quite a few lives were lost. 

that's about as dodgy as having Warthogs in the area, unless you're the enemy ..