Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Jiayuguan, Gansu, China:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Jiayuguan Airport (JGN), Jiayuguan, Gansu, China would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,506 miles (or 7,252 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 Jiayuguan 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 Jiayuguan 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):

• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
• 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.
• 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.
• In 1950, as a result of the beginning of the Cold War, the airfield was transferred to the U.S.
• KC-135 and KC-10 tankers deployed to Fairford supported Operation El Dorado Canyon against Libya in 1986.

Facts about Jiayuguan Airport (JGN):

• The closest airport to Jiayuguan Airport (JGN) is Zhangye Ganzhou Airport (YZY), which is located 144 miles (232 kilometers) ESE of JGN.
• Jiayuguan Airport (JGN) currently has only 1 runway.
• In addition to being known as "Jiayuguan Airport", other names for JGN include "嘉峪关机场" and "Jiāyùguān Jīchǎng".
• The furthest airport from Jiayuguan Airport (JGN) is Pupelde Airfield (ZUD), which is nearly antipodal to Jiayuguan Airport (meaning Jiayuguan Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Pupelde Airfield), and is located 12,003 miles (19,316 kilometers) away in Ancud, Los Lagos Region, Chile.
• Because of Jiayuguan Airport's high elevation of 5,112 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at JGN. Combined with a high temperature, this could make JGN a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.