Nonstop flight route between Bossembélé, Central African Republic and St Athan, Wales, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Bossembélé Airport (BEM), Bossembélé, Central African Republic and MoD St Athan (DGX), St Athan, Wales, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,410 miles (or 5,488 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 Bossembélé Airport and MoD St Athan, 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 Bossembélé Airport and MoD St Athan. 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 Bossembélé Airport (BEM):

• In addition to being known as "Bossembélé Airport", another name for BEM is "Bossembélé Airport (Bossembélé)".
• The closest airport to Bossembélé Airport (BEM) is Bangui M'Poko International Airport (BGF), which is located 86 miles (138 kilometers) SE of BEM.
• The furthest airport from Bossembélé Airport (BEM) is Manihiki Island Airport (MHX), which is nearly antipodal to Bossembélé Airport (meaning Bossembélé Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Manihiki Island Airport), and is located 12,071 miles (19,427 kilometers) away in Manihiki Island, Cook Islands.

Facts about MoD St Athan (DGX):

• Just before 1100 GMT on 11 February 2009, two Grob Tutor aircraft flying out of St Athan were involved in a mid-air collision in which two Air Training Corps cadets and their instructors, both RAF pilots, died.
• The furthest airport from MoD St Athan (DGX) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,960 miles (19,248 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• The MOD later decided that DARA's 'Fast Jets' and 'Engines' businesses would close by April 2007, although the 'Large Aircraft' business would continue and, on 14 April 2005, the Project Red Dragon super-hangar opened and DARA moved its VC10 operations from its existing 'Twin Peaks' hangar into the new facility.
• The closest airport to MoD St Athan (DGX) is Cardiff Airport (CWL), which is located only 4 miles (6 kilometers) E of DGX.
• The station officially opened as RAF St Athan on 1 September 1938 and the first unit to take up residence was No 4 School of Technical Training.
• The last aircraft to be serviced at St Athan, a Vickers VC10, departed the site on 23 February 2012.
• After the war, airmen of the Airframe and Engine trades continued to train at St Athan, but in 1955 this training dispersed to RAF Kirkham and RAF Weeton.
• MoD St Athan (DGX) currently has only 1 runway.
• Because of MoD St Athan's relatively low elevation of 163 feet, planes can take off or land at MoD St Athan 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.
• In March 2004, however, DARA announced the loss of 550 jobs at St Athan as part of streamlining to make DARA more efficient and better able to compete with the private sector for lucrative aircraft repair contracts, but also because they lost out to a direct RAF bid for a contract to upgrade the air force's fleet of ageing Harrier jump jet aircraft.