Nonstop flight route between Bossier City, Louisiana, United States and Santa Maria, Portugal:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Barksdale Air Force Base (BAD), Bossier City, Louisiana, United States and Santa Maria Airport (SMA), Santa Maria, Portugal would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,816 miles (or 6,142 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 Barksdale Air Force Base and Santa Maria 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 Barksdale Air Force Base and Santa Maria 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 Barksdale Air Force Base (BAD):

• The commander of the 2d Bomb Wing is Colonel Andrew Gebara.
• Airships were still in use when field construction began, so Hangars One and Two were built large enough to accommodate them.
• By the mid-1930s, Barksdale Field was the headquarters and main base of the 3rd Attack Wing, equipped with the Curtiss A-12 and Northrop A-17.
• The furthest airport from Barksdale Air Force Base (BAD) is Cocos (Keeling) Island Airport (CCK), which is located 10,884 miles (17,516 kilometers) away in Cocos Islands, Australia.
• In addition to being known as "Barksdale Air Force Base", another name for BAD is "Barksdale AFB".
• Captain Harris selected what he felt was an adequate location for a military airfield.
• The closest airport to Barksdale Air Force Base (BAD) is Shreveport Downtown Airport (DTN), which is located only 5 miles (9 kilometers) WNW of BAD.
• On 1 November 1949, Barksdale was reassigned to Strategic Air Command, and became home of Headquarters Second Air Force.
• Barksdale was developed as an Air Corps flying school November 1940 and the runway apron was completed mid-1941.
• The site was selected 5 December 1928, as the location of the airfield.

Facts about Santa Maria Airport (SMA):

• Santa Maria Airport handled 93,436 passengers last year.
• A chartered Boeing 707-300, Independent Air Flight 1851 from Bergamo, Italy in 1989 crashed on approach to Santa Maria Airport, when it struck the Pico Alto mountain.
• Santa Maria Airport (SMA) currently has only 1 runway.
• For a while, Air France's supersonic Concordes were routed to Santa Maria on refueling layovers between Paris and Caracas.
• In addition to being known as "Santa Maria Airport", another name for SMA is "Aeroporto de Santa Maria".
• The forerunner of SATA Air Açores initiated services concurrently to São Miguel and Terceira from Santa Maria Airport on 5 August 1947, using a plane christened "Açor".
• The closest airport to Santa Maria Airport (SMA) is João Paulo II Airport (PDL), which is located 60 miles (97 kilometers) NNW of SMA.
• Because of Santa Maria Airport's relatively low elevation of 308 feet, planes can take off or land at Santa Maria 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.
• The furthest airport from Santa Maria Airport (SMA) is Moruya Airport (MYA), which is nearly antipodal to Santa Maria Airport (meaning Santa Maria Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Moruya Airport), and is located 12,166 miles (19,579 kilometers) away in Moruya, New South Wales, Australia.