Nonstop flight route between Blagoveshchensk, Amur Oblast, Russia and Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Ignatyevo Airport (BQS), Blagoveshchensk, Amur Oblast, Russia and RAF Lakenheath (LKZ), Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,685 miles (or 7,540 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 Ignatyevo Airport and RAF Lakenheath, 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 Ignatyevo Airport and RAF Lakenheath. 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 Ignatyevo Airport (BQS):

• In addition to being known as "Ignatyevo Airport", another name for BQS is "Аэропорт Игнатьево".
• Because of Ignatyevo Airport's relatively low elevation of 640 feet, planes can take off or land at Ignatyevo 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 Ignatyevo Airport (BQS) is Port Stanley Airport (PSY), which is nearly antipodal to Ignatyevo Airport (meaning Ignatyevo Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Port Stanley Airport), and is located 12,195 miles (19,626 kilometers) away in Stanley, Falkland Islands, United Kingdom.
• The closest airport to Ignatyevo Airport (BQS) is Heihe Airport (HEK), which is located only 18 miles (29 kilometers) SSW of BQS.
• Ignatyevo Airport (BQS) currently has only 1 runway.

Facts about RAF Lakenheath (LKZ):

• Control of RAF Lakenheath was allocated to Third Air Force at South Ruislip Air Station, which had command of SAC B-29 operations in England.
• Lakenheath Airfield was used by RAF flying units on detachment late in 1941.
• The furthest airport from RAF Lakenheath (LKZ) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,827 miles (19,034 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• The first use of Lakenheath Warren as a Royal Flying Corps airfield was in World War I, when the area was made into a bombing and ground-attack range for aircraft flying from elsewhere in the area.
• The closest airport to RAF Lakenheath (LKZ) is RAF Mildenhall (MHZ), which is located only 4 miles (7 kilometers) SW of LKZ.
• The increasing tension of the Cold War lead to a re-evaluation of these deployments, and by 1953 SAC bombers began to move its heavy bomb groups further west, behind RAF fighter forces, to RAF Brize Norton, RAF Greenham Common, RAF Upper Heyford and RAF Fairford, while its shorter-range B-47 were sent to East Anglia.
• Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union in Europe began as early as 1946.
• In 1940, the Air Ministry selected Lakenheath as an alternative for RAF Mildenhall and used it as a decoy airfield.