Nonstop flight route between Cortez, Colorado, United States and Fairford, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Cortez Municipal Airport (CEZ), Cortez, Colorado, United States and RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,876 miles (or 7,847 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 Cortez Municipal Airport and RAF Fairford, 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 Cortez Municipal Airport and RAF Fairford. 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 Cortez Municipal Airport (CEZ):

• The closest airport to Cortez Municipal Airport (CEZ) is Animas Air Park (AMK), which is located 42 miles (68 kilometers) E of CEZ.
• A Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft made an emergency nighttime forced landing August 3, 1959, at the Cortez Municipal Airport.
• The furthest airport from Cortez Municipal Airport (CEZ) is Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport (RRG), which is located 11,132 miles (17,915 kilometers) away in Rodrigues Island, Mauritius.
• Cortez Municipal Airport (CEZ) currently has only 1 runway.
• Because of Cortez Municipal Airport's high elevation of 5,918 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at CEZ. Combined with a high temperature, this could make CEZ a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.

Facts about RAF Fairford (FFD):

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• In the early years of the Cold War the British and American governments reached an agreement under which elements of the USAF Strategic Air Command would be based in the UK.
• The runway was completed in 1953, and served as a forward airbase for the first Convair B-36 Peacemaker aircraft from Carswell Air Force Base, Texas.
• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.