Flightradar24 Interesting Finds

[MossRoad]

I saw a military plane icon this weekend and it was a P51 Mustang.

 

[Redbug]

Around 5am (eastern time) the big daily UPS and Fedex movement starts. The UPS hub is at Louisville, KY and Fedex hub is at Memphis TN. Massive takeoffs of the planes loaded and headed to all parts of the country and elsewhere. Where I live (Columbia SC) about 9 of those large aircraft are at the local hub during the day getting reloaded.

 

[Carl_NH]

Two kc46a on refuel mission

 

[Carl_NH]

Two kc46a on refuel mission View attachment 3578676View attachment 3578677

 

[dmccarty]

What is this U2 doing?

View attachment 3544095

That is a really odd pattern. I wonder what NASA is doing.

If this was a USAF U2 and if there were USN exercises off shore, I would have expected the U2 to just fly a race track pattern. A few days ago, I saw a YouTube video of an interview with a U2 pilot that was interesting. He would not say how how the U2 can fly, just 70,000+ feet. He did say the flights can be long and boring. The sensors can see quite a distance away from the plane and the U2 has been used as a communication node though he did not mention the communication aspect of the plane.

I see KC135s and KC46s every day on the flight tracking websites. Some fly out and back routes but many, like one right now, is flying a race track pattern near/over Pamilco Sound. Many weekdays there is a KC135 flying that pattern near/over Pamlico Sound. There are KC46s at Seymour Johnson AFB that almost always fly in pairs and a certain altitude which makes them easy to see among the passenger flights. The KC46s fly some odd routes. They have a call sign of BackyXX.

Sometimes I will see drones up and they are in race track or circular patterns. The USCG C130s will sometimes fly circles which I think is training because it is always in the same location near their base. I have seen them flying a mowing the grass pattern which I assume was an actual search operation.

 

[Carl_NH]

Speaking of a racetrack - state police on rt 95

 

[caver]

Hmmmm no flying over certain countries....

 

[bcp]

Tethered balloon, over 2 miles high. I wonder what the tether is made of.

Aircraft type (SHIP)

Lockheed-Martin Tethered Aerostat Radar System

Tethered Aerostat Radar System - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"Tether length: 25,000 feet "

Bruce

 

[BigBlue1]

Kite string?

 

[Carl_NH]

Don’t see these often- took off from Columbus oh