Nonstop flight route between Wake Island, United States Minor Outlying Islands and Agana, Guam:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Wake Island Airfield (AWK), Wake Island, United States Minor Outlying Islands and Andersen Air Force Base (UAM), Agana, Guam would travel a Great Circle distance of 1,490 miles (or 2,399 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 relatively short distance between Wake Island Airfield and Andersen Air Force Base, the route shown on this map most likely still appears to be a straight line.

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about Wake Island Airfield (AWK):

• The closest airport to Wake Island Airfield (AWK) is Quoin Hill Airfield (UIQ), which is located 169 miles (272 kilometers) SE of AWK.
• Because of Wake Island Airfield's relatively low elevation of 23 feet, planes can take off or land at Wake Island Airfield 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.
• Wake Island Airfield is a military airport located on Wake Island, which is known for the Battle of Wake Island.
• Another airline that operated into Wake Island was Philippine Airlines with Douglas DC-8 jetliners on a daily westbound service from San Francisco and Honolulu to Manila during the early 1970s.
• Wake Island Airfield (AWK) currently has only 1 runway.
• Between 5 and 29 May 1935, Pan American's air base construction vessel, North Haven, landed supplies and equipment on Wilkes Island for eventual rehandling to Peale Island which, because of its more suitable soil and geology, had been selected as site for the PAA seaplane base.
• The furthest airport from Wake Island Airfield (AWK) is RAF Ascension (ASI), which is located 11,652 miles (18,752 kilometers) away in Georgetown, Ascension Island, Saint Helena.
• On 26 December 1940, implementing the Hepburn Board's recommendations, a pioneer party of 80 men and 2,000 short tons of equipment sailed for Wake Island from Oahu.

Facts about Andersen Air Force Base (UAM):

• In October 1949, the 19th Wing again became subordinated to the 20th Air Force and the remaining units in the Marianas and Bonin Islands were transferred to other organizations.
• In 1951, the Strategic Air Command chose several overseas bases to support rotational unit deployments of its bombers from stateside bases, starting with B-29 Superfortress units and later including Convair B-36, B-47 Stratojet, B-50 Superfortress bombers, and KB-29 refueling tankers.
• Andersen is one of four bomber forward operating locations in the US Air Force.
• The frequent bombings resulted in a cease-fire in Vietnam, but the B-52s continued to fly missions over Cambodia and Laos until those were halted on 15 August 1973.
• The furthest airport from Andersen Air Force Base (UAM) is Salvador-Deputado Luís Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (2 de Julho) (SSA), which is nearly antipodal to Andersen Air Force Base (meaning Andersen Air Force Base is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Salvador-Deputado Luís Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (2 de Julho)), and is located 12,214 miles (19,656 kilometers) away in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
• Guam was considered as being ideal to establish air bases to launch B-29 Superfortress operations against the Japanese Home Islands.
• However, the FEAF Bomber Command was inactivated in 1954 and its three B-29 wings returned stateside and replaced with B-47s.
• The closest airport to Andersen Air Force Base (UAM) is Guam International Airport (GUM), which is located only 11 miles (17 kilometers) SW of UAM.