'Doomsday plane' that could mean you only have five minutes left to live spotted twice in a week

People looking to the skies have been spotting one of the world's most advanced aircraft flying above them more than usual lately.

Nicknamed the 'doomsday plane', the official name for this thing is the Boeing E-4B 'Nightwatch' or National Airborne Operations Centre (NAOC) and is designed to function as an airborne command centre for the US.

America has four of these things in their fleet, with at least one ready to fly at all times, and at $159,529 (£126,000) per hour to operate it's their most expensive plane to keep in the skies.

The US Air Force states: "In case of national emergency or destruction of ground command and control centers, the aircraft provides a highly survivable command, control and communications center to direct U.S. forces, execute emergency war orders, and coordinate actions by civil authorities."

However, while seeing one of these in the sky might mean US officials need a place to operate from because of impending disaster they're also used to transport senior figures so despite its scary reputation you shouldn't assume the world is ending just because you see one.

The controls inside the plane are analogue so they can be used even with electromagnetic interference (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

According to the Daily Star, Americans have seen this plane flying around a couple of times in the past week as it was seen flying over Fresno, California where it went through a series of mock landings and approaches.

It was then spotted at Los Angeles International Airport, where US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth used it as a means of transportation.

Remember, the planes are used to ferry folk like him around so there are normal uses for these aircraft which ought not be cause for alarm.

These planes which serve as mobile war rooms can fly at 600mph for 12 hours and are able to refuel without landing, meaning they can theoretically stay in the skies for a whole week.

There's space on board for up to 112 people to operate the various bits of communication equipment and accompany whichever officials have been put on the plane to make decisions in the aftermath of a catastrophe.

These planes can be refuelled without landing, assuming their refuelling ships are still functional (USAF/Getty Images)

Given that they're designed to keep operating even in a doomsday scenario these planes are built to withstand an electromagnetic attack, so it has analogue controls which would keep working through the worst.

The four planes are typically located at US Strategic Command, south of Omaha, but one is always ready to fly and the others are well maintained so they can be used if necessary.

Of course if we really were stuck in the doomsday scenario then this plane might not be able to do much other than ineffectually fly around for a bit since everyone on the ground would be dead because the plonkers who have got a 'doomsday plane' to hide in screwed things up beyond repair.

Fortunately, nuclear armed powers are not currently at war with each other though there is a huge amount of tension in the world from numerous conflicts, including the recent war with Israel and the US against Iran.