Nonstop flight route between Enshi, Hubei, China and St Athan, Wales, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Enshi Xujiaping Airport (ENH), Enshi, Hubei, China and MoD St Athan (DGX), St Athan, Wales, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,482 miles (or 8,823 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 Enshi Xujiaping Airport and MoD St Athan, 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 Enshi Xujiaping Airport and MoD St Athan. 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 Enshi Xujiaping Airport (ENH):

• The closest airport to Enshi Xujiaping Airport (ENH) is Qianjiang Wulingshan Airport (JIQ), which is located 68 miles (109 kilometers) SW of ENH.
• The furthest airport from Enshi Xujiaping Airport (ENH) is La Florida Airport (LSC), which is nearly antipodal to Enshi Xujiaping Airport (meaning Enshi Xujiaping Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from La Florida Airport), and is located 12,387 miles (19,935 kilometers) away in La Serena, Chile.
• In addition to being known as "Enshi Xujiaping Airport", other names for ENH include "恩施许家坪机场" and "Enshī Xǔjiāpíng Jīchǎng".

Facts about MoD St Athan (DGX):

• St Athan also became the major RAF maintenance base for Vulcan, Victor, Buccaner, Phantom, Harrier, Tornado, Jaguar, Hawk and VC10 aircraft, originally under direct RAF control, but latterly under the auspices of the Defence Aviation Repair Agency.
• The furthest airport from MoD St Athan (DGX) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,960 miles (19,248 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• Because of MoD St Athan's relatively low elevation of 163 feet, planes can take off or land at MoD St Athan 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.
• In March 2004, however, DARA announced the loss of 550 jobs at St Athan as part of streamlining to make DARA more efficient and better able to compete with the private sector for lucrative aircraft repair contracts, but also because they lost out to a direct RAF bid for a contract to upgrade the air force's fleet of ageing Harrier jump jet aircraft.
• The closest airport to MoD St Athan (DGX) is Cardiff Airport (CWL), which is located only 4 miles (6 kilometers) E of DGX.
• The training to be carried out at St Athan was to be specialist phase 2 and phase 3 engineering courses of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force.
• MoD St Athan (DGX) currently has only 1 runway.
• The only squadrons to operate out of St Athan on a regular basis are the University of Wales Air Squadron, flying Grob Tutors and No 634 Volunteer Gliding Squadron using Vigilant T.1s.
• Just before 1100 GMT on 11 February 2009, two Grob Tutor aircraft flying out of St Athan were involved in a mid-air collision in which two Air Training Corps cadets and their instructors, both RAF pilots, died.