Low flying Airbus A400M over Minchinhampton Common

I was working at my desk at teatime today when I heard a sudden very loud engine noise in the sky close by. My immediate thought was that it was a big helicopter, which are fairly common in the sky above us. But it became so loud that I thought I must see what it was. I got up and walked to the window of my study and opened one of them wide enough to lean right out. For a few seconds I couldn’t see anything overhead, and then a plane appeared to my right crossing over our valley and banking very steeply to head eastwards along the ridge between the valleys above Rodborough Common. 

I knew I didn’t have my camera nearby but did have my phone on charge. So I unplugged it and opened the camera app as quickly as I could. In my head I thought I’d try to use the built-in zoom function if I could discover how. By the time I had it open and focused on the hillside, the plane had reached Minchinhampton Common, and was probably flying over Tom Long’s Post at about 250 feet.

I managed to take three frames but was certain they would be very poor quality given the circumstances. Looking at them now I’m amazed that I recorded anything. The first image was more interesting as it showed some of the houses dotted amongst the trees at Bownham, but the detail was quite blurred. The recorded images appear like Impressionist paintings, but given that the plane must have been at least two miles away I am suitably impressed.

My first sight of the plane when it was banking steeply showed its massive size. I’ve had a quick search and think it must be an Airbus A400M Atlas, which is a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. I assumed it was probably heading to land at the relatively nearby RAF Fairford, but fellow Blipper HelenJG, who knows a lot more than me, suggests it was probably based at RAF Brize Norton, in Wiltshire:
Fairford is home to the 501st Combat Support Wing Headquarters and the 420th Air Base Squadron and serves as the preferred bomber forward operating location in Europe for USAF Global Strike Command. 
The airfield and infrastructure is capable of handling the B-52 Stratofortress, B-1B 'Lancer', B-2 stealth bombers, and U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Fairford is also home to one of the World's largest military air shows, the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT), which takes place in July every year.’Low flying Airbus A400M Atlas over Minchinhampton Common.

During the Iraq war we often had B-52s Stratofortress bombers flying over us, and as low as this plane, flying to RAF Fairford and often armed with cruise missiles beneath their wings. They were very loud, and rather unsettling as you might imagine.


edit:
I've added an 'Extra' of an old image of the instrument panel of a Vulcan Bomber ,which I'd posted eight years ago here, and then lost.