Bird’s eye view as Top Gun crew send fighter thundering through mountains at 500mph

COCOONED inside their cockpit, two airmen throw their fighter jet through the twists and turns of a training mission in the mountain valleys of Snowdonia.

They are as little as 250ft from the ground as the fighter skims over the snow-covered Welsh countryside – giving plane spotters the chance to look down on the crew from the surrounding hills.

The £71million aircraft trailed a bloom of heat distortion from its engines and white vortices – spirals of air left behind by the wingtips – as it thundered by at 500mph.

The US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft was on manoeuvres in an area of Snowdonia known as the Machynlleth Loop. Its navigation kit features a terrain following radar which allows it to fly at very low altitudes.

RAF crews use the same training area because it simulates terrain in which their aircraft – and a potential enemy’s – can become invisible to search radar and the naked eye.

The F-15E is based at RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk, a base that has been used by the Americans since the Second World War.

It is an upgraded variant of the veteran F-15 Eagle – which appeared in the 1970s – and has a dual role. It is designed to attack ground positions as well as fight enemy aircraft and entered service in 1989.

It saw action in the Gulf War, the Balkans, and Iraq and is currently flying bombing missions against IS in the Middle East.

Above: The pilot and the weapons systems operator put their F-15E through its paces. Left: The jet trails heat distortion from its engines and spirals of air from its wingtips

F-15E FACTFILE Wingspan: 42.8ft Power plant: Two Pratt & Whitney afterburning turbofans Max speed: 1,875mph Max range: 2,400 miles with extra tanks Max height: 60,000ft Rate of climb: 50,000+ ft/min AIM-9 Sidewinder Short range air-to-air missile...