Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Cape Girardeau, Missouri, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Cape Girardeau Regional Airport (CGI), Cape Girardeau, Missouri, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,174 miles (or 6,718 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 Cape Girardeau Regional 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 RAF Fairford and Cape Girardeau Regional 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 RAF Fairford (FFD):

• Fairford was chosen in 1969 as the British test centre for the Concorde aircraft, which continued until 1977.
• Royal Air Force Fairford or more simply RAF Fairford is a Royal Air Force station in Gloucestershire, England which is currently a standby airfield and therefore not in everyday use.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.

Facts about Cape Girardeau Regional Airport (CGI):

• As per Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 443 passenger boardings in calendar year 2008, 978 enplanements in 2009, and 4,862 in 2010.
• In addition to being known as "Cape Girardeau Regional Airport", another name for CGI is "Harris Army Airfield".
• The furthest airport from Cape Girardeau Regional Airport (CGI) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 11,036 miles (17,761 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.
• Contract flying training was short at the airfield, the school closing during the late summer of 1944 with the drawdown of AAFTC's pilot training program.
• The closest airport to Cape Girardeau Regional Airport (CGI) is Sikeston Memorial Municipal AirportHarvey Parks Army Airfield (SIK), which is located 23 miles (36 kilometers) S of CGI.
• Cape Girardeau Regional Airport (CGI) has 2 runways.
• Because of Cape Girardeau Regional Airport's relatively low elevation of 342 feet, planes can take off or land at Cape Girardeau Regional 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.