So whats flying over your head?

I doubt many people realise how many aircraft are passing over or near their houses particularly when they are no where near an airport. Arguably few people probably want to know, but I'm going to give you an insight anyway! Typically where I live, which is close to several busy airways, if the weather is clear you could easily see 200-300 aircraft in a day. These are not noisy or obtrusive, on the contrary many people would not even notice them, but there again my interests are perhaps different to many! Most of these aircraft are flying between North America and Europe and between the UK, mainland Europe and Ireland. Amongst the usual transatlantic airliners are more interesting offerings, such as US military transports (5 to 10 per day is normal), civil operated aircraft on trooping flights (10-20 per day), private jets (anything from 20-40 per day), which on Sunday included this Bombardier Global Express, owned by a South African company. This is one of the largest private jets (the size of a smallish airliner), easily capable of flying from London to Tokyo non-stop.

There are also supposedly "clandestine" flights one of which is a certain Learjet (a mid size 6 seat executive jet), registered in the US as N54PA (see photo below), which has been allegedly used on rendition flights. This aircraft continues to operate with some regularity (I have seen it overflying twice this year) despite claims in the press of its association with such activities. A quick internet search on this aircraft will show it turning up all over the world, with sightings as diverse as Guantanamo Bay, Shannon, Peking, Ponta Delgada, Thule (Greenland) to name but a few.