Nonstop flight route between Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia and Pituffik, Greenland:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Alice Springs Airport (ASP), Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia and Thule Air Base (THU), Pituffik, Greenland would travel a Great Circle distance of 8,713 miles (or 14,022 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 Alice Springs Airport and Thule Air Base, 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 Alice Springs Airport and Thule Air Base. 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 Alice Springs Airport (ASP):

• The facility is also extensively used to launch stratospheric research balloons.
• Tragedy struck the airport again on 5 January 1977, when a former employee of Connair, Colin Richard Forman, flew a stolen aircraft into the Connair offices located at the airport, killing himself and three of the airline's employees.
• The furthest airport from Alice Springs Airport (ASP) is Barbuda Codrington Airport (BBQ), which is located 11,336 miles (18,243 kilometers) away in Codrington, Barbuda, Antigua and Barbuda.
• The facility is to be operated by Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage Ltd which chose Alice Springs because its dry, arid climate is perfect for aircraft storage and preservation.
• On 27 May 2011 it was announced that Alice Springs Airport had been selected to be the first large-scale aircraft "boneyard" outside the United States, with the first aircraft for storage to arrive early in 2012.
• Alice Springs Airport handled 598,749 passengers last year.
• Alice Springs Airport (ASP) has 2 runways.
• The closest airport to Alice Springs Airport (ASP) is Cowra Airport (CWT), which is located 44 miles (71 kilometers) E of ASP.

Facts about Thule Air Base (THU):

• The closest airport to Thule Air Base (THU) is Savissivik Heliport (SVR), which is located 69 miles (111 kilometers) ESE of THU.
• The furthest airport from Thule Air Base (THU) is Hobart International Airport (HBA), which is located 9,883 miles (15,905 kilometers) away in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
• In addition to being known as "Thule Air Base", another name for THU is "Thule AB".
• Thule Air Base is home to the 21st Space Wing's global network of sensors providing missile warning, space surveillance and space control to North American Aerospace Defense Command and Air Force Space Command.
• Thule is the location where the fastest recorded sea level surface wind speed in the world was measured when a peak speed of 333 kilometres per hour was recorded on 8 March 1972 prior to the instrument's destruction.
• Thule AB was constructed in secret under the code name Operation Blue Jay, but the project was made public in September 1952.
• After the German occupation of Denmark on 9 April 1940, Henrik Kauffmann Danish Ambassador to the United States, made an agreement "In the name of the king" with the United States authorizing the United States to defend the Danish colonies on Greenland from German aggression - this agreement faced Kaufmann with a charge of high treason.
• Originally established as a Strategic Air Command installation, Thule would periodically serve as a dispersal base for B-36 Peacemaker and B-47 Stratojet aircraft during the 1950s, as well as providing an ideal site to test the operability and maintainability of these weapon systems in extreme cold weather.
• Thule Air Base is also home to the 821st Air Base Group and is responsible for air base support within the Thule Defense Area for the multinational population of "Team Thule." The base hosts the 12th Space Warning Squadron which operates a Ballistic Missile Early Warning System designed to detect and track ICBMs launched against North America.
• In the winter of 1956/57 three KC-97 tankers and alternately one of two RB-47H aircraft made polar flights to inspect Soviet defenses.