Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and State College, Pennsylvania, United States:
Departure Airport:
Arrival Airport:
Distance from FFD to SCE:
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- About this route
- FFD Airport Information
- SCE Airport Information
- Facts about FFD
- Facts about SCE
- Map of Nearest Airports to FFD
- List of Nearest Airports to FFD
- Map of Furthest Airports from FFD
- List of Furthest Airports from FFD
- Map of Nearest Airports to SCE
- List of Nearest Airports to SCE
- Map of Furthest Airports from SCE
- List of Furthest Airports from SCE
About this route:
A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and University Park Airport (SCE), State College, Pennsylvania, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,540 miles (or 5,697 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 Fairford and University Park 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 Fairford and University Park Airport. You'll see that it will travel the same route of the red line on this map!
Departure Airport Information:
IATA / ICAO Codes: | FFD / EGVA |
Airport Name: | RAF Fairford |
Location: | Fairford, England, United Kingdom |
GPS Coordinates: | 51°40'55"N by 1°47'24"W |
Operator/Owner: | Ministry of Defence |
View all routes: | Routes from FFD |
More Information: | FFD Maps & Info |
Arrival Airport Information:
IATA / ICAO Codes: | SCE / KUNV |
Airport Names: |
|
Location: | State College, Pennsylvania, United States |
GPS Coordinates: | 40°50'57"N by 77°50'54"W |
Operator/Owner: | Pennsylvania State University |
Airport Type: | Public |
Elevation: | 1239 feet (378 meters) |
# of Runways: | 1 |
View all routes: | Routes from SCE |
More Information: | SCE Maps & Info |
Facts about RAF Fairford (FFD):
- KC-135 and KC-10 tankers deployed to Fairford supported Operation El Dorado Canyon against Libya in 1986.
- The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
- Operations staff and maintenance personnel were permanently assigned, but aircraft, aircrews and crew chiefs were temporarily assigned to the 11th Strategic Group for the European Tanker Task Force on rotation.
- Due to the deteriorating airfield facilities and its unique NATO heavy bomber mission, RAF Fairford underwent a $100 million upgrade of its runway and fuel systems in the largest NATO funded airfield construction project within a NATO country since the end of the Cold War.
- On 14 January 2004, the 420th Air Base Group was established at RAF Fairford to improve the control of its geographically separated units that had been aligned beneath the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall.
- The furthest airport from RAF Fairford (FFD) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,898 miles (19,148 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
- In 1950, as a result of the beginning of the Cold War, the airfield was transferred to the U.S.
Facts about University Park Airport (SCE):
- On February 17, 2014, Delta Airlines announced nonstop service to Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport starting on June 7, 2014.
- The furthest airport from University Park Airport (SCE) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 11,582 miles (18,639 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.
- In addition to being known as "University Park Airport", another name for SCE is "UNV".
- University Park Airport (SCE) currently has only 1 runway.
- Starting in the 1950s, private pilots in the area had constructed a small airport on land leased from Penn State, just north of State College.
- The closest airport to University Park Airport (SCE) is Mid-State Regional Airport (PSB), which is located only 13 miles (20 kilometers) W of SCE.