Nonstop flight route between Butte, Montana, United States and Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Bert Mooney Airport (BTM), Butte, Montana, United States and RAF Lakenheath (LKZ), Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,574 miles (or 7,362 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 Bert Mooney 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 Bert Mooney 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 Bert Mooney Airport (BTM):

• The closest airport to Bert Mooney Airport (BTM) is Dillon Airport (DLN), which is located 48 miles (78 kilometers) S of BTM.
• Because of Bert Mooney Airport's high elevation of 5,550 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at BTM. Combined with a high temperature, this could make BTM a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.
• On March 22, 2009 a Pilatus PC-12 flying in from Oroville, California crashed in Holy Cross Cemetery 500 feet from the airport, killing all 14 people on board.
• The furthest airport from Bert Mooney Airport (BTM) is Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport (RRG), which is located 10,611 miles (17,077 kilometers) away in Rodrigues Island, Mauritius.
• Bert Mooney Airport (BTM) has 2 runways.
• The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a primary commercial service facility.Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 30,431 passenger boardings in calendar year 2008, 25,178 in 2009 and 25,433 in 2010.

Facts about RAF Lakenheath (LKZ):

• In response to the threat by the Soviet Union, by the 1948 Berlin blockade, President Truman decided to realign USAFE into a permanent combat-capable force.
• In 1940, the Air Ministry selected Lakenheath as an alternative for RAF Mildenhall and used it as a decoy airfield.
• The work entailed removal of the existing runways and laying new ones comprising 12 inches of high-grade concrete.
• On 27 November 1948, operational control of RAF Lakenheath was transferred from the Royal Air Force to USAFE.
• 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.
• By 1950, Lakenheath was one of three main operating bases for the U.S.
• Royal Air Force Lakenheath or RAF Lakenheath, is a Royal Air Force station near the town of Lakenheath in Suffolk, England located 4.7 miles north-east of Mildenhall, Suffolk and 8.3 miles west of Thetford, Norfolk.
• The closest airport to RAF Lakenheath (LKZ) is RAF Mildenhall (MHZ), which is located only 4 miles (7 kilometers) SW of LKZ.
• 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.