Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Houston, Texas, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Andrau Airpark (AAP), Houston, Texas, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,789 miles (or 7,707 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 RAF Fairford and Andrau Airpark, 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 RAF Fairford and Andrau Airpark. 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 RAF Fairford (FFD):

• Operations staff and maintenance personnel were permanently assigned, but aircraft, aircrews and crew chiefs were temporarily assigned to the 11th Strategic Group for the European Tanker Task Force on rotation.
• On 15 September 2009, it was announced that the USAF will withdraw all their uniformed staff from the station by September 2010, after which it will be run on a "care and maintenance" basis.
• The furthest airport from RAF Fairford (FFD) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,898 miles (19,148 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• RAF Fairford is also the home of the Royal International Air Tattoo, an annual air display.
• On 14 January 2004, the 420th Air Base Group was established at RAF Fairford to improve the control of its geographically separated units that had been aligned beneath the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall.
• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
• In the early years of the Cold War the British and American governments reached an agreement under which elements of the USAF Strategic Air Command would be based in the UK.

Facts about Andrau Airpark (AAP):

• Because of Andrau Airpark's relatively low elevation of 80 feet, planes can take off or land at Andrau Airpark 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.
• The first known photo of the area is from 1953.
• Andrau Airpark (AAP) has 2 runways.
• The furthest airport from Andrau Airpark (AAP) is Cocos (Keeling) Island Airport (CCK), which is located 10,987 miles (17,682 kilometers) away in Cocos Islands, Australia.
• The closest airport to Andrau Airpark (AAP) is Sugar Land Regional Airport (SGR), which is located only 8 miles (13 kilometers) SW of AAP.
• The airport served general aviation for west Houston, but a Douglas DC-3 and an A-26C Invader are known to have landed there.