Residents of Wembury, Sherford, Bickleigh and Woolwell might have wondered what was going on early yesterday evening when a US military aircraft was spotted repeatedly circling the greater Plymouth area.

The circular flights started around 5.50pm and continued for approximately an hour.

There was a cloud cover but people could spot the plane in the gaps.

The plane, a Rockwell B-1B Lancer, was shown on various flight tracking apps as having flown from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire having carried out some flying over the north Cornish coast.

The flights causes some consternation on social media with one lady writing: ‘Because we are not at war with Iran, why should he be using a military base in this country then flying heavily laden bombers over our populated areas?

Not to mention the noise and pollution and potential effect on our wildlife.

If he wants to be at war do it from the States. It's not as if it isn't big enough!”

A man wryly observed: ‘I think he was lost. He was looking for the Straits of Hormuz and he saw Hamoaze on his map!”

The Rockwell was refueled mid-air.

The Rockwell B-1 Lancer is a supersonic variable-sweep wing heavy bomber used by the United States Air Force.

It has been nicknamed the "Bone" (from "B-One")

As of 2026, it is one of the U.S. Air Force's three strategic bomber types along with the B-2 Spirit and the B-52 Stratofortress.

It carries up to a 75,000-pound (34,000kg) payload.

The B-1 was first envisioned in the 1960s as a bomber that would combine the Mach 2 speed of the B- 58 Hustler with the range and payload of the B-52, ultimately replacing both.

Prototypes of the B-1A could fly at Mach 2.2 but the programme was cancelled in 1977 due to its high cost but restarted in 1981 when changes were made and the plane formally entered service with Strategic Air Command (SAC) in in 1986.