Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Taiyuan, Shanxi, China:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Taiyuan Wuxu International Airport (TYN), Taiyuan, Shanxi, China would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,105 miles (or 8,215 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 Taiyuan Wuxu International 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 Taiyuan Wuxu International 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 Fairford (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.
• 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.
• 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 closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
• On 15 September 2009, it was announced that the USAF will withdraw all their uniformed staff from the station by September 2010, after which it will be run on a "care and maintenance" basis.
• RAF Fairford was the only TransOceanic Abort Landing site for NASA's Space Shuttle in the UK.
• In the early years of the Cold War the British and American governments reached an agreement under which elements of the USAF Strategic Air Command would be based in the UK.
• The runway was completed in 1953, and served as a forward airbase for the first Convair B-36 Peacemaker aircraft from Carswell Air Force Base, Texas.

Facts about Taiyuan Wuxu International Airport (TYN):

• Taiyuan Wuxu International Airport handled 6,813,265 passengers last year.
• In addition to being known as "Taiyuan Wuxu International Airport", other names for TYN include "太原武宿国际机场" and "Tàiyuán Wǔsù Guójì Jīchǎng".
• The furthest airport from Taiyuan Wuxu International Airport (TYN) is Colonia Catriel Airport (CCT), which is nearly antipodal to Taiyuan Wuxu International Airport (meaning Taiyuan Wuxu International Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Colonia Catriel Airport), and is located 12,409 miles (19,970 kilometers) away in Colonia Catriel, Río Negro, Argentina.
• The closest airport to Taiyuan Wuxu International Airport (TYN) is Lüliang Airport (LLV), which is located 81 miles (131 kilometers) W of TYN.
• Taiyuan Wuxu International Airport (TYN) currently has only 1 runway.