Nonstop flight route between Houston, Texas, United States and Hawker, South Australia, Australia:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Ellington Field Joint Reserve BaseEllington Air Force BaseEllington Field (EFD), Houston, Texas, United States and Wilpena Pound (HWK), Hawker, South Australia, Australia would travel a Great Circle distance of 9,270 miles (or 14,919 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 Ellington Field Joint Reserve BaseEllington Air Force BaseEllington Field and Wilpena Pound, 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 Ellington Field Joint Reserve BaseEllington Air Force BaseEllington Field and Wilpena Pound. 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 Ellington Field Joint Reserve BaseEllington Air Force BaseEllington Field (EFD):

• The furthest airport from Ellington Field Joint Reserve BaseEllington Air Force BaseEllington Field (EFD) is Cocos (Keeling) Island Airport (CCK), which is located 11,008 miles (17,716 kilometers) away in Cocos Islands, Australia.
• Though the 111th Observation Squadron had the excess World War I storage and maintenance facilities at Ellington Field, the squadron did not have a true headquarters building.
• The closest airport to Ellington Field Joint Reserve BaseEllington Air Force BaseEllington Field (EFD) is William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), which is located only 8 miles (12 kilometers) WNW of EFD.
• During World War I, Ellington served as an advanced flight training base.
• In addition to being known as "Ellington Field Joint Reserve BaseEllington Air Force BaseEllington Field", another name for EFD is "Ellington Field JRB".
• In 1943 Ellington Field became the site for advanced navigator training.
• Ellington was considered surplus to requirements after World War I and the base was inactivated as an active duty airfield in January 1920.
• Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base is a joint installation shared by various active component and reserve component military units, as well as aircraft flight operations of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under the aegis of the nearby Johnson Space Center.
• During 1958–59, USAF navigator training training operations were consolidated at Mather AFB and James Connally AFB, followed by a second consolidation to Mather AFB as the sole training location in the early 1960s.

Facts about Wilpena Pound (HWK):

• The wall of mountains almost completely encircles the gently-sloping interior of the Pound, with the only breaks being the gorge at Wilpena Gap and a high saddle in the south-western range over which the Heysen Trail passes.
• The peaks are very rugged, and thick scrub and timber inside the pound can make navigation difficult.
• The closest airport to Wilpena Pound (HWK) is Leigh Creek Airport (LGH), which is located 67 miles (108 kilometers) N of HWK.
• The furthest airport from Wilpena Pound (HWK) is Flores Airport (FLW), which is located 11,642 miles (18,736 kilometers) away in Flores Island, Azores, Portugal.
• After the immense labour of constructing a road through the torturous Wilpena Gap, they built a small homestead inside the Pound, which still stands today, and cleared some open patches in the thick scrub of the interior.
• Because of Wilpena Pound's relatively low elevation of 0 feet, planes can take off or land at Wilpena Pound at a lower air speed than at airports located at a higher elevation. This is because the air density is higher closer to sea level than it would otherwise be at higher elevations.