A low-flying 1940s plane doing survey work will be a common sight over mid and west Cornwall during the next two to three weeks.

The geological mapping plane is hoping to identify where lithium and other minerals may be located underground.

The flights are happening in the mornings at about 100m (328ft).

Bell Geospace, which is doing the work, said the "aircraft is able to sense and measure geological properties which cannot otherwise be seen".
From BBC Red Button Text - Monday 20 December 2021.

Cheers, Paul. 

Its a Douglas DC3 'Dakota'. 

https://www.bellgeo.com/aircraft

for the nerdy, there are still 172 airworthy examples operating worldwide with 4 in the UK

MARK

And for the even more nerdy the article https://earlyflightera.com/2014/12/06/1930s-light-metal-wings-ii/amp/ starts to give an appreciation of how the multi spar wing design keeps most of the stresses at the surface within the skin allowing surface inspection and panel/rivet changes to give air hours lifespan way in excess of almost any other aircraft (other than perhaps TU95 Bear or B52 BUFF)

Sorry, that's just too nerdy. Anyway, I'm offline for a couple of days now, you'll all be relieved to know, so have a good one

Talking of low and slow planes, I was up on Ingleborough with my daughter the other day when a very-low-flying plane came over. It was like nothing I?ve ever seen before, with a rounded nose with sinister-looking ?things? ? gun barrels? ? sticking out of it (the nose, that is).

It had one propeller near the end of each wing, and was flying very slowly (for a modern aeroplane).

I realize that?s a pretty poor description, but based on that description, does anybody have any idea of what it might have been?

I did wonder if it might have been a version of the ?tank-busters? that used to fly around the Dales years ago.

Fulk said:

Talking of low and slow planes, I was up on Ingleborough with my daughter the other day when a very-low-flying plane came over.

Click to expand...

If you can remember what time, https://www.flightradar24.com/54.16,-2.39/13 goes back a week, for free.

Sounds like a V-22 Osprey. Not all the military stuff shows up on Flightradar, but might be worth googling an image to see if it was one of those. Certainly fits the description.

Thanks for that suggestion, Boy Engineer. I found a video of the Osprey on You-Tube and, although the plane we saw flew low and slow and we got a good look at it, I can't remember it in enough detail to match it to the Osprey. My memory tells me that the plane we saw did not have a body that barrelled out towards its rear ? I seem to recall that its body size was pretty much the same all the way along, and I have a feeling that although the propellers were far out on the wings, they weren't quite at the ends (as is the case with the Osprey). Still, my memory for detai . . . .

An Osprey overflew High Force (Teesdale) tracking East around 12.30 on Thursday 16th December;  I was on my way up to Nent and had stopped for bait near Low Force. 

Happy Christmas, folks   

MARK

Probably an Osprey, then, if they're active in the area. Thanks for the input, guys.