Nonstop flight route between Georgetown, Ascension Island, Saint Helena and Bordeaux / Mérignac, France:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Ascension (ASI), Georgetown, Ascension Island, Saint Helena and Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport (BOD), Bordeaux / Mérignac, France would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,746 miles (or 6,029 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 Bordeaux-Mérignac 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 Bordeaux-Mérignac 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.
• 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 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.
• The Target Tracking Radar Station was a Nike Zeus test facility for tracking reentry vehicles from Cape Canaveral missile launches.
• Ascension Island Auxiliary Field was being built by 181 men from Saint Helena by 1957
• RAF Ascension Island is also the refuelling point for the Ministry of Defence's South Atlantic Air Bridge flights to RAF Mount Pleasant, on the Falkland Islands, from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, in the UK.
• In addition to being known as "RAF Ascension", another name for ASI is "Wideawake Airbase/Field".
• 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.

Facts about Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport (BOD):

• The furthest airport from Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport (BOD) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is nearly antipodal to Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport (meaning Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Chatham Islands), and is located 12,215 miles (19,658 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• On 1 October 1958, Bordeaux-Mérignac Air Base was closed to reduce USAFE expenses and manpower.
• The closest airport to Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport (BOD) is La Teste-de-Buch Airport (XAC), which is located 25 miles (41 kilometers) SW of BOD.
• In 1951 Mérignac was turned over to NATO for use by the United States Air Force.
• Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport handled 457,435 passengers last year.
• In addition to being known as "Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport", another name for BOD is "Aéroport de Bordeaux-Mérignac".
• As a consequence of the temporary closure of the Cazaux military base, the civil authorities have been forced to share the runway with the French Army since November 2005.
• Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport (BOD) has 2 runways.
• Because of Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport's relatively low elevation of 162 feet, planes can take off or land at Bordeaux-Mérignac 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.