A Sunday morning visitor to Okęcie - this Israeli Airforce Boeing 707. Usually it flies in around seven am, this morning it took off over our house mid-morning. Note no visible markings; slim turbojets rather than the more efficient, clean-burning turbofans used by most jets these days. Note also tail boom for in-flight refuelling. 
Incidentally, the Boeing 707 and its military equivalent, the KC-135 is one of five aircraft to have served a full half-century in the same air force. The others are the English Electric/BAC Canberra, Boeing B-52, Tupolev Tu-20/95 'Bear' and the Lockheed C-130 Hercules.The plane is a tanker conversion of a cargo Boeing 707 operated by the Israeli Air Force. Click here for photo. We saw it today (Sunday 13 July at 09:13) flying in from the south. Below: Flying in on Sunday 2 November at 09:41.
Something very loud flew above Pruszków at 3:08CET 28.06.2009. The noise woke me up and from the direction and movement of the noise source I believe it was an aircraft starting from Okęcie. Is it possible it was this tanker aircraft?
ReplyDeleteHi Wełniak,
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Spottaz over at Lotnictwo.net, it was an Antonov An-124 Ruslan (take-off time cited as 03:10 on Sunday).
There was a time two years ago, when they'd fly in regularly.
Thanks for this information.
ReplyDeleteThat makes sense. Time matches accurately, and Ruslan is a really big beast. It surely makes dreadfull noise.