What the path of a mapping plane looks like...

[Mako]

This is a Beech 200 Super KingAir, owned by RVL Aviation since 2018. They provide (among other things) contracted ground survey services with oblique/side-scanning imaging.

It's this kind of plane that fed data to the likes of Google for their 3-D views in Maps, allowing you to see detail of buildings and terrain from various angles.

Anyway, it looks like they were updating in my area today, though I don't know who they were contracting for specifically...

 

[nvingo]

I'm sure I've seen a plot like that covering Norwich, Norfolk.

 

[TopCat1127]

This one is ze Germans just se of Berlin currently, was looking for ours, but there's none up at the mo

 

[Mako]

Have you got a tail number for HYDRA, Tony?

It's just that it's flagged as military, is a drone, and those tracks/orbits are screaming "observation" to me (though I have no idea what they would've been watching in that area).

 

[TopCat1127]

No mate, altho ours do similar when practice flying for surveillance