Nonstop flight route between Bury St. Edmunds, England, United Kingdom and Chengdu, Sichuan, China:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Honington USAAF Station 375 (BEQ), Bury St. Edmunds, England, United Kingdom and Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU), Chengdu, Sichuan, China would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,083 miles (or 8,180 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 Honington USAAF Station 375 and Chengdu Shuangliu International 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 Honington USAAF Station 375 and Chengdu Shuangliu International 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 Honington USAAF Station 375 (BEQ):

• In June 1942, the airfield was transferred to the USAAF and was upgraded to a Class A Bomber base.
• Then, in May of that year, a Wellington returning from a night trip attempted to land at Honington with its wheels retracted.
• The closest airport to RAF Honington USAAF Station 375 (BEQ) is RAF Lakenheath (LKZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) WNW of BEQ.
• The furthest airport from RAF Honington USAAF Station 375 (BEQ) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,834 miles (19,044 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• With the departure of the USAAF in February 1946, Honington airfield was returned to the RAF.
• Besides the air depot, Honington also housed an operational fighter unit when the 364th Fighter Group took up residence at Honington in February 1944, arriving from Santa Maria AAF, California.

Facts about Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU):

• On December 12, 1956, the Shuangguisi Airport was put under civil aviation, which was then formally listed as a civil aviation airport and renamed Chengdu Shuangliu Airport.
• When China Southwest Airlines existed, its headquarters were on the airport property.
• In addition to being known as "Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport", other names for CTU include "成都双流国际机场" and "Chéngdū Shuāngliú Guójì Jīchǎng".
• Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU) has 2 runways.
• The closest airport to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU) is Mianyang Nanjiao Airport (MIG), which is located 75 miles (121 kilometers) NE of CTU.
• The airport is now an international civil airport with flights to more than 20 international destinations and many domestic airports, and is a hub for Chengdu Airlines, Air China and Sichuan Airlines.
• The furthest airport from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU) is La Florida Airport (LSC), which is nearly antipodal to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (meaning Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from La Florida Airport), and is located 12,144 miles (19,543 kilometers) away in La Serena, Chile.
• In 2013 United Airlines announced it would start a thrice-weekly flight from San Francisco to Chengdu, operated with Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.
• Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport handled 31,500,000 passengers last year.