Nonstop flight route between Edwards, California, United States and Darwaz, Badakhshan, Afghanistan:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Edwards Air Force Base (EDW), Edwards, California, United States and Darwaz Airport (DAZ), Darwaz, Badakhshan, Afghanistan would travel a Great Circle distance of 7,337 miles (or 11,807 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 Edwards Air Force Base and Darwaz Airport, 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 Edwards Air Force Base and Darwaz Airport. 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 Edwards Air Force Base (EDW):

• The closest airport to Edwards Air Force Base (EDW) is Mojave Air and Space Port (MHV), which is located only 19 miles (30 kilometers) NW of EDW.
• As a military airbase, civilian access is severely restricted, but is possible with prior coordination and good reason.
• There are a vast array of organizations at Edwards that do not fall under the 412th Test Wing.
• Notable occurrences at Edwards include Chuck Yeager's flight that broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1, test flights of the North American X-15, the first landings of the Space Shuttle, and the 1986 around-the-world flight of the Rutan Voyager.
• As with virtually all of the test programs conducted during the war years, most of the actual flight test work on the P-59 was conducted by the contractor.
• The success of these programs attracted a new type of research activity to the base in late 1946.
• The P-59s were tested at Muroc from October 1942 through February 1944 without a single accident and, though the aircraft did not prove to be combat worthy, the successful conduct of its test program, combined with the success of the Lockheed XP-80 program which followed it in early 1944, sealed the future destiny of the remote high desert installation.
• The furthest airport from Edwards Air Force Base (EDW) is Pierrefonds Airport (ZSE), which is located 11,414 miles (18,369 kilometers) away in Saint-Pierre, Réunion.
• The first major aerial activity occurred at Muroc in 1937 when the entire Army Air Corps participated in a large-scale maneuver.

Facts about Darwaz Airport (DAZ):

• Darwaz Airport (DAZ) currently has only 1 runway.
• In addition to being known as "Darwaz Airport", another name for DAZ is "Darwaz Airport (Darwaz)".
• The closest airport to Darwaz Airport (DAZ) is Khwahan Airport (KWH), which is located 54 miles (87 kilometers) SW of DAZ.
• The furthest airport from Darwaz Airport (DAZ) is Mataveri International Airport (IPC), which is located 11,656 miles (18,759 kilometers) away in Easter Island, Chile.
• Because of Darwaz Airport's high elevation of 4,331 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at DAZ. Combined with a high temperature, this could make DAZ a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.