Nonstop flight route between Covilhã, Portugal and Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Covilhã Airport (COV), Covilhã, Portugal and RAF Lakenheath (LKZ), Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 921 miles (or 1,482 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 Covilhã Airport and RAF Lakenheath, the route shown on this map most likely still appears to be a straight line.

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about Covilhã Airport (COV):

• Covilhã Airport (COV) currently has only 1 runway.
• The furthest airport from Covilhã Airport (COV) is Takaka Aerodrome (KTF), which is nearly antipodal to Covilhã Airport (meaning Covilhã Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Takaka Aerodrome), and is located 12,390 miles (19,940 kilometers) away in Takaka, New Zealand.
• The closest airport to Covilhã Airport (COV) is Coimbra Airport (CBP), which is located 53 miles (85 kilometers) W of COV.

Facts about RAF Lakenheath (LKZ):

• 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.
• On 1 May 1951, Lakenheath was transferred from USAFE to SAC, and placed under the 3909th Air Base Group.
• Aircraft of the 48th FW carry the tail code "LN".
• 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 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.
• In 1940, the Air Ministry selected Lakenheath as an alternative for RAF Mildenhall and used it as a decoy airfield.
• The closest airport to RAF Lakenheath (LKZ) is RAF Mildenhall (MHZ), which is located only 4 miles (7 kilometers) SW of LKZ.