Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Coimbra, Portugal:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Coimbra Airport (CBP), Coimbra, Portugal would travel a Great Circle distance of 858 miles (or 1,380 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 RAF Fairford and Coimbra Airport, the route shown on this map most likely still appears to be a straight line.

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about RAF Fairford (FFD):

• Due to the deteriorating airfield facilities and its unique NATO heavy bomber mission, RAF Fairford underwent a $100 million upgrade of its runway and fuel systems in the largest NATO funded airfield construction project within a NATO country since the end of the Cold War.
• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
• On 12 May 2005, USAFE activated the 501st Combat Support Wing, with headquarters at RAF Alconbury, to provide support to its GSUs in the United Kingdom.
• 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.
• 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.
• RAF Fairford was the only TransOceanic Abort Landing site for NASA's Space Shuttle in the UK.
• 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.
• The runway was completed in 1953, and served as a forward airbase for the first Convair B-36 Peacemaker aircraft from Carswell Air Force Base, Texas.

Facts about Coimbra Airport (CBP):

• In addition to being known as "Coimbra Airport", another name for CBP is "Aeródromo Municipal Bissaya Barreto".
• Coimbra Airport (CBP) currently has only 1 runway.
• The furthest airport from Coimbra Airport (CBP) is Takaka Aerodrome (KTF), which is nearly antipodal to Coimbra Airport (meaning Coimbra Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Takaka Aerodrome), and is located 12,352 miles (19,879 kilometers) away in Takaka, New Zealand.
• Because of Coimbra Airport's relatively low elevation of 571 feet, planes can take off or land at Coimbra Airport 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 closest airport to Coimbra Airport (CBP) is Covilhã Airport (COV), which is located 53 miles (85 kilometers) E of CBP.