Nonstop flight route between Cholet, France and Fairford, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Cholet Le Pontreau Airport (CET), Cholet, France and RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 320 miles (or 516 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 relatively short distance between Cholet Le Pontreau Airport and RAF Fairford, the route shown on this map most likely still appears to be a straight line.

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about Cholet Le Pontreau Airport (CET):

• The furthest airport from Cholet Le Pontreau Airport (CET) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is nearly antipodal to Cholet Le Pontreau Airport (meaning Cholet Le Pontreau Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Chatham Islands), and is located 12,125 miles (19,514 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• The closest airport to Cholet Le Pontreau Airport (CET) is Nantes Atlantique Airport (NTE), which is located 35 miles (56 kilometers) W of CET.
• In addition to being known as "Cholet Le Pontreau Airport", another name for CET is "Aéroport de Cholet Le Pontreau".
• Cholet Le Pontreau Airport (CET) currently has only 1 runway.

Facts about RAF Fairford (FFD):

• Operations staff and maintenance personnel were permanently assigned, but aircraft, aircrews and crew chiefs were temporarily assigned to the 11th Strategic Group for the European Tanker Task Force on rotation.
• The furthest airport from RAF Fairford (FFD) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,898 miles (19,148 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
• Due to the deteriorating airfield facilities and its unique NATO heavy bomber mission, RAF Fairford underwent a $100 million upgrade of its runway and fuel systems in the largest NATO funded airfield construction project within a NATO country since the end of the Cold War.
• RAF Fairford was the only TransOceanic Abort Landing site for NASA's Space Shuttle in the UK.
• On 14 January 2004, the 420th Air Base Group was established at RAF Fairford to improve the control of its geographically separated units that had been aligned beneath the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall.
• RAF Fairford was constructed in 1944 to serve as an airfield for British and American troop carriers and gliders for the D-Day invasion of Normandy during World War II.
• On 15 September 2009, it was announced that the USAF will withdraw all their uniformed staff from the station by September 2010, after which it will be run on a "care and maintenance" basis.