This stunning image shows water vapour streaming from the wings of an aircraft as it comes in to land on one of the largest runways in the country.
The enormous cargo plane created swirls in the sky as it touched down on the tarmac at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, as the sun set on the horizon.
It created a perfect silhouette above the 10,000ft long runway which was lit up by a trail of orange and red lights.
Aviation photographer Andrew Lewis, 40, was passing the RAF base when he spotted the Airbus A 400 M Atlas coming in to land.
He said: “I saw the Airbus on approach and I had the camera with me so I thought why not.
“There was like a nice sunset going down as well, it was very atmospheric.
“It had been looking very oblique at the time, there was a lot of fog low down and it was a bit miserable.
“But as the plane came in, it just started to clear slightly”.
Andrew, from Kingswinford, West Mids., managed to capture “absolutely stunning” vapour trails darting from the plane’s wings.
They are formed when gas sitting on the aircraft spins and turns to a liquid, or even ice particles in freezing temperatures.
Andrew, who is currently training in a professional photography diploma, added: “Because the air is dense when its cold with vapour, the dampness in the air causes fluffing and then off the ends of the wing, they call it ribbons.”
RAF Brize Norton is the largest station of the Royal Air Force and the sole air point of embarkation for British troops.
