Aeroplane recognition please

[Fodda]

I'm in the happy position where I work in that we seem to be on a VFR point for military aircraft. At least once a week we get something low right over the roof, mostly Chinooks, Merlins and Hercs. We've had the Red Arrows a couple of times, and a collection of other strange and wonderful visitors (BoB flight, TriStars etc.)

Mostly I can recognise them as they're very close to the roof of the building we're in, as we're on the crest of a hill a couple of miles due east of Filton.

Yesterday however we had the usual low drone and by the time I got to a window all I could see was a turboprop twin going directly away from us. I could see that it wasn't a T-tail jobbie, and the upper wings looked remarkably "ETPS colours" being red from the tips to about a third of the way along and then white for the rest. We were looking right up the tail pipes. It continued flying north at very low altitude (200-500') until it went out of view.

I'd love to think I saw an RAF or Boscombe Down 748, but this is wishful thinking on my part.

Any idea anyone? The constant low level flying makes me think it wasn't a private 'plane.

[Garry Russell]

HS780 Andover??

I think there is still one HELP

Garry

[DaveB]

Yeh.. I caught this one last year.. I presume after visiting Benson. He was quite low and disappeared off in the direction of Boscombe while I stood there with my mouth open in wonder! Luckily.. my hedge trimmer had just burst into flame otherwise I'd have missed it

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Chris558]

Two 780's (Andover C.1s) still operated by Qinetiq; XS606 is the ETPS example, and XS646 is the other (test/research) one. They're both in the colour scheme you're describing. (The white/grey open skies one, XS596 has been grounded due to no more funding. I wonder if it will be used as a spares source?) There are no standard 748's sadly now at Boscombe, and no Andovers of any version still flying in the RAF since...1996!! :o

Other than those, your sighting could have been one of Qinetiqs PA-31's or their Bassett, in those colours, both of which are much smaller and of course, not turboprop.

Btw, can you tell I like Andovers? :roll:

[Fodda]

Thanks for the replies. I'd love to think it was an Andover... As I said all we could see was the rear view. And it was sio low we only saw the upper wing suface as it was heading directly away. I'll have a look in airliners.com fo any other comparables.

[Garry Russell]

There is nothing really like an Andover as it has a low set tailplane with dihedral on a bumped up rear fuse.

Other aircraft with a tailplane relative to the wing (much higher) are freight fuselage wide bodies like Hercules, Transall.etc.

Quite distinctive :think:

Garry

[Fodda]

Well, the PA-31 is way too small. Looking through various sites and photos I'd like to think we had a very low pass by XS606. The upper wing colours match, and we'd have missed the high dihedral on the stabiliser as they would have been lost in the wing-root/engine cowling detail (that's how low she was, and why I knew she wasn't a T-tail config).

Thanks all.