Nonstop flight route between Cocoa Beach, Florida, United States and Sofia, Bulgaria:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Patrick Air Force Base (COF), Cocoa Beach, Florida, United States and Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF), Sofia, Bulgaria would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,566 miles (or 8,958 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 Patrick Air Force Base and Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna, 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 Patrick Air Force Base and Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna. 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 Patrick Air Force Base (COF):

• In 1971, the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute was established at Patrick AFB.
• The host wing for Patrick AFB is the 45th Space Wing, whose officers and airmen manage all launches of unmanned rockets at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station 12 miles to the north.
• In addition to being known as "Patrick Air Force Base", another name for COF is "Patrick AFB".
• The closest airport to Patrick Air Force Base (COF) is Merritt Island Airport (COI), which is located only 9 miles (14 kilometers) NNW of COF.
• At 19:50, the tanker SS Gaines Mills reported seeing a mid-air explosion, then flames leaping 100 feet high and burning on the sea for 10 minutes.
• Cost comparison studies done in the early 1950s pointed out the desirability of letting contractors operate the station.
• The furthest airport from Patrick Air Force Base (COF) is Shark Bay Airport (MJK), which is located 11,550 miles (18,587 kilometers) away in Monkey Mia, Western Australia, Australia.
•  United States Air Force

Facts about Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF):

• By the late 1970s, the terminal was handling in the region of three million passengers a year, a million of them on domestic routes.
• According to the plan a new Sofia airport terminal was built to the east of the old terminal and a second runway was constructed alongside the existing one.
• Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF) currently has only 1 runway.
• The closest airport to Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF) is Plovdiv Airport (PDV), which is located 86 miles (138 kilometers) ESE of SOF.
• Terminal 2 was officially opened on 27 December 2006 with the symbolic arrival of Bulgaria Air flight FB 408 from Brussels.
• In addition to being known as "Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna", other names for SOF include "Vrazhdebna Airport" and "Летище София".
• The new Sofia tower will be situated to the west of Terminal 2 and will be complementing the terminal building in architectural terms.
• Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna handled 350,432 passengers last year.
• The furthest airport from Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,437 miles (18,405 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• A lot of consideration has been given to the design of the layout, the functional definition of the working positions, the operations room surface area for ANS provision and meteorological observation, as well as to the requirements for visibility to the runway and the approaches and access to an open observation platform.