THE eagled–eyed might have caught a glimpse of this aircraft, or heard it, soaring through the Oxfordshire skies on its way back to base.

With a wingspan of more than 40 meters wide, four huge turboprops and a wheelie fast average speed of 370 miles per hour, we’re amazed that Oxford Mail Camera Club member John Percival managed to snap the RAF’s C-130J Hercules in quite so much detail.

The khaki plane, which cruises at five miles up, first came into production in the late 1950s.

In 2015, it was then announced that 14 of these crafts will remain in service until 2030.

On the Royal Air Force website, they introduce the aircraft as ‘crucial to UK operations, a fact emphasised by the 1982 Falklands War.’

Mr Percival uploaded the photo to the club’s Facebook page, which has more than 800 members, for the theme of wheels.

He said he caught the snap as the C-130 Hercules was on its approach to RAF Brize Norton– where the aircraft is based.

See Friday’s paper for a spread of this week’s best ‘wheel’ snaps.