Nonstop flight route between Porto Santo, Madeira, Portugal and Wallops Island, Virginia, United States:
Departure Airport:
Arrival Airport:
Distance from PXO to WAL:
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- About this route
- PXO Airport Information
- WAL Airport Information
- Facts about PXO
- Facts about WAL
- Map of Nearest Airports to PXO
- List of Nearest Airports to PXO
- Map of Furthest Airports from PXO
- List of Furthest Airports from PXO
- Map of Nearest Airports to WAL
- List of Nearest Airports to WAL
- Map of Furthest Airports from WAL
- List of Furthest Airports from WAL
About this route:
A direct, nonstop flight between Porto Santo Airport (PXO), Porto Santo, Madeira, Portugal and Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL), Wallops Island, Virginia, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,287 miles (or 5,289 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 Porto Santo Airport and Wallops Flight Facility 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 Porto Santo Airport and Wallops Flight Facility Airport. You'll see that it will travel the same route of the red line on this map!
Departure Airport Information:
IATA / ICAO Codes: | PXO / LPPS |
Airport Names: |
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Location: | Porto Santo, Madeira, Portugal |
GPS Coordinates: | 33°4'14"N by 16°20'58"W |
Area Served: | Porto Santo Island |
Airport Type: | Military/Public |
Elevation: | 338 feet (103 meters) |
# of Runways: | 1 |
View all routes: | Routes from PXO |
More Information: | PXO Maps & Info |
Arrival Airport Information:
IATA / ICAO Codes: | WAL / KWAL |
Airport Name: | Wallops Flight Facility Airport |
Location: | Wallops Island, Virginia, United States |
GPS Coordinates: | 37°56'24"N by 75°27'59"W |
Elevation: | 0 feet (0 meters) |
View all routes: | Routes from WAL |
More Information: | WAL Maps & Info |
Facts about Porto Santo Airport (PXO):
- The airport's infrastructure has improved over time, with increases to the runway length and in ramp surface.
- Porto Santo Airport handled 106,592 passengers last year.
- The closest airport to Porto Santo Airport (PXO) is Madeira Airport (FNC), which is located 36 miles (58 kilometers) SW of PXO.
- Porto Santo Airport (PXO) currently has only 1 runway.
- In addition to being known as "Porto Santo Airport", another name for PXO is "Aeroporto de Porto Santo".
- Porto Santo Airport is an airport located 2 km north northwest of Porto Santo on Porto Santo Island, Madeira.
- Because of Porto Santo Airport's relatively low elevation of 338 feet, planes can take off or land at Porto Santo Airport at a lower air speed than at airports located at a higher elevation. This is because the air density is higher closer to sea level than it would otherwise be at higher elevations.
- In 1959, its runway was built with an initial length of 2,000 m.
- The furthest airport from Porto Santo Airport (PXO) is Lord Howe Island Airport (LDH), which is nearly antipodal to Porto Santo Airport (meaning Porto Santo Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Lord Howe Island Airport), and is located 12,150 miles (19,553 kilometers) away in Lord Howe Island, New South Wales, Australia.
Facts about Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL):
- Early research rockets at Wallops Island
- Because of Wallops Flight Facility Airport's relatively low elevation of 0 feet, planes can take off or land at Wallops Flight Facility Airport at a lower air speed than at airports located at a higher elevation. This is because the air density is higher closer to sea level than it would otherwise be at higher elevations.
- On September 6, 2013, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer was launched from Wallops, atop a Minotaur V rocket.
- There have been over 16,000 launches from the rocket testing range at Wallops since its founding in 1945 in the quest for information on the flight characteristics of airplanes, launch vehicles, and spacecraft, and to increase the knowledge of the Earth's upper atmosphere and the environment of outer space.
- The furthest airport from Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 11,785 miles (18,965 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.
- AFSS is a project to develop an autonomous on-board system that could augment or replace traditional ground-commanded Range Safety flight termination systems.
- In the early years, research at Wallops concentrated on obtaining aerodynamic data at transonic and low supersonic speeds.
- The first payload launched into orbit from Wallops Island was Explorer IX, atop a Scout rocket, on February 15, 1961.
- The closest airport to Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL) is Accomack County Airport (MFV), which is located 26 miles (42 kilometers) SW of WAL.
- Weather measurements and predictions are critical to all Research Airport operations, rocket and balloon launches, and in safely conducting hazardous operations on the ground.
- LCT2 is an effort to produce a relatively low-cost transceiver to allow launch vehicles to communicate through NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System after they have gone over the horizon from the launch site.