Nonstop flight route between Georgetown, Ascension Island, Saint Helena and Yakushima, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Ascension (ASI), Georgetown, Ascension Island, Saint Helena and Yakushima Airport (KUM), Yakushima, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan would travel a Great Circle distance of 9,700 miles (or 15,611 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 Yakushima 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 Yakushima 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):

• In addition to being known as "RAF Ascension", another name for ASI is "Wideawake Airbase/Field".
• Ascension serves as a diversion airport for ETOPS aircraft crossing the Atlantic.
• Ascension Island Auxiliary Field was being built by 181 men from Saint Helena by 1957
• 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.
• Wideawake Airfield was a US installation built in 1943 by arrangement with the British government.
• 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.
• 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.
• The closest airport to RAF Ascension (ASI) is Sasstown Airport (SAZ), which is located 965 miles (1,553 kilometers) NNE of ASI.
• The station comes under the overall jurisdiction of the Commander British Forces South Atlantic Islands, an officer of one-star rank.

Facts about Yakushima Airport (KUM):

• The furthest airport from Yakushima Airport (KUM) is Salgado Filho International Airport (POA), which is nearly antipodal to Yakushima Airport (meaning Yakushima Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Salgado Filho International Airport), and is located 12,324 miles (19,834 kilometers) away in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
• In addition to being known as "Yakushima Airport", other names for KUM include "屋久島空港" and "Yakushima Kūkō".
• Because of Yakushima Airport's relatively low elevation of 122 feet, planes can take off or land at Yakushima 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.
• Yakushima Airport (KUM) currently has only 1 runway.
• The closest airport to Yakushima Airport (KUM) is Kagoshima Airport (KOJ), which is located 98 miles (158 kilometers) N of KUM.