Nonstop flight route between Georgetown, Ascension Island, Saint Helena and Mount Hotham, Victoria, Australia:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Ascension (ASI), Georgetown, Ascension Island, Saint Helena and Mount Hotham Airport (MHU), Mount Hotham, Victoria, Australia would travel a Great Circle distance of 9,109 miles (or 14,660 kilometers).

A Great Circle is the shortest distance between 2 points on a sphere. Because most world maps are flat (but the Earth is round), the route of the shortest distance between 2 points on the Earth will often appear curved when viewed on a flat map, especially for long distances. If you were to simply draw a straight line on a flat map and measure a very long distance, it would likely be much further than if you were to lay a string between those two points on a globe. Because of the large distance between RAF Ascension and Mount Hotham Airport, the route shown on this map most likely appears curved because of this reason.

Try it at home! Get a globe and tightly lay a string between RAF Ascension and Mount Hotham Airport. You'll see that it will travel the same route of the red line on this map!

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about RAF Ascension (ASI):

• The closest airport to RAF Ascension (ASI) is Sasstown Airport (SAZ), which is located 965 miles (1,553 kilometers) NNE of ASI.
• RAF Ascension Island was re-garrisoned by the RAF in 1982 and used extensively as a staging base during the Falklands War.
• The NASA Tracking Station at Devil's Ashpit and the Cable & Wireless Earth Station at Donkey Plain were built in the "mid-sixties" for space operations and communications, including the latter's use for transmitting "microwave borne data via the Early Bird Satellite back to the NASA facility at Andover, Maine.
• The RAF presence on Ascension is backed up by United States Air Force personnel, who contribute a similar number of service personnel to ensure the effective running of the station, under the command of Captain Eduard Rodriguez, who is responsible to the RAF Station Commander.
• The furthest airport from RAF Ascension (ASI) is Ujae Airport (UJE), which is nearly antipodal to RAF Ascension (meaning RAF Ascension is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Ujae Airport), and is located 12,370 miles (19,907 kilometers) away in Ujae Atoll, Marshall Islands.
• In addition to being known as "RAF Ascension", another name for ASI is "Wideawake Airbase/Field".
• The Target Tracking Radar Station was a Nike Zeus test facility for tracking reentry vehicles from Cape Canaveral missile launches.

Facts about Mount Hotham Airport (MHU):

• Mount Hotham Airport (MHU) currently has only 1 runway.
• The closest airport to Mount Hotham Airport (MHU) is Bairnsdale Aerodrome (BSJ), which is located 59 miles (96 kilometers) SSE of MHU.
• The furthest airport from Mount Hotham Airport (MHU) is Flores Airport (FLW), which is nearly antipodal to Mount Hotham Airport (meaning Mount Hotham Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Flores Airport), and is located 12,251 miles (19,715 kilometers) away in Flores Island, Azores, Portugal.
• On 8 July 2005, a Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain charter plane crashed into terrain while attempting to make a landing at the airport, killing the pilot and two passengers.
• Because of Mount Hotham Airport's high elevation of 4,260 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at MHU. Combined with a high temperature, this could make MHU a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.