Mysterious Planes

[ZebUK]

My partner saw FOUR of these fly over earlier today.

About the size of a Hercules carrier but with jet engines (2 on each wing) not propellors, green in color.

Any idea if the military has planes like this in use and if so, what could they be? Any links to pictures would be awesome :)

[Prudie]

Could it have been the RAF Globemaster, it's as a big as a Hercules and based at Brize Norton. You'll need to google.

[LCDMAN]

Were they B-52s? Are you anywhere near Fairford, Gloucs? Neither we nor the US have any transport/freight aircraft with two engines per pylon, but the B-52 does. Globemaster, Galaxy etc. are all 1 engine per pylon, not two.

http://en.wikipedia.o...g_B-52_Stratofortress

[Prudie]

http://www.google.co....1t:429,r:1,s:12,i:119

What's a pylon then? This Globemaster has 4 engines.

[LCDMAN]

oops. mis-read your post. 2 engines PER WING could well be C-17 Globemasters, or C-5 Galaxy. I read it as engine pairs!!

http://en.wikipedia.o.../C-17_Globemaster_III

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-5_Galaxy

[LCDMAN]

A pylon is what attaches an engine(s) to the wing. The B-52 has 2 engines hung from each pylon, 2 pylons per wing, whereas Globemaster & Galaxy have just one per pylon, 2 pylons per wing.

[LCDMAN]

Having said all that, I would have expected them to be grey, not green. (USAF/RAF/RAAF/RCAF)

[ZebUK]

Forgot to mention, we're in Exeter city centre...

[EDDIE51]

Was it one of these ?
http://en.wikipedia.o..._C-17_Globemaster_III

[237SJ]

Bit weird. Underneath all those airline liveries though, the planes are painted green. Could be a new delivery somewhere but they`re normally painted in the colours by the manufacturer (assuming they were civil aircraft).