People looking to the skies on Monday evening may have got a glimpse of an RAF aircraft used for refuelling other military aircraft flying overhead. 

Swindon and Wiltshire Camera Club member Kye Gulliford was doing so, and he was able to get a photograph of the Voyager KC2 ZZ338. 

The aircraft is based nearby at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, and is the Royal Air Force's sole air-to-air refuelling (AAR) tanker.

It also operates as a strategic air transport with two underwing pods for refuelling fast jets, and an additional centreline hose for use by large aircraft. 

The cabin has room for up to 291 personnel and the hold is available for freight.  

The RAF website says: "As a tanker, capabilities include the ability to operate a ‘towline’, where the Voyager orbits around a prescribed area awaiting ‘receivers’, or in a ‘trail’, where it flies with a number of fast jets, refuelling them over long ranges while taking responsibility for the formation’s fuel and navigation.

"Alternatively, it can operate as a passenger aircraft in much the same way as a civilian airliner, but delivering personnel safely into theatre thanks to its defensive aids suite.

"Voyager also offers considerable capacity for the movement of palletised and/or bulk freight in its lower fuselage hold. "