A photographer has spoken about the moment he captured American fighter jets being refuelled in the skies over Perth.
Stuart Cowper photographed four F-22s, accompanied by a larger plane, flying over the area on Saturday morning.
The fighter jets can be refuelled mid-air using a tanker, which transfers fuel to the receiving aircraft as they both fly.
Stuart captured the moment completely by chance, having originally ventured out to capture a steam locomotive passing through the area.
He said: “It was around 11.45am on Saturday.
“I had been out taking photos of the steam engine and wasn’t paying attention to what was coming over, then I heard the noise and looked up and caught them.
“You get regular flights of American jets but more often than not they get clouded out, so I was lucky.
“There were two more lots that came over but it had clouded over by that point.”
F-22s above Perth ‘rare to see’
The F-22, a model which first entered service 25 years ago, is an American twin-engine fighter jet.
And while it may be common to see such jets flying over Scotland, Stuart says it was something of a coup to capture the F-22s.
He added: “They usually do fly up over Leuchars and then between Dundee and Perth.
“Sometimes you can hear them but not see them.
“But it’s usually not the F-22s that fly over but the F-15s or F-16s.
“The F-22s are rarer to see.”
