Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and La Unión, Honduras[disambiguation needed]:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and La Unión Airport (LUI), La Unión, Honduras[disambiguation needed] would travel a Great Circle distance of 7,287 miles (or 11,727 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 La Unión 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 La Unión 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):

• 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 1950, as a result of the beginning of the Cold War, the airfield was transferred to the U.S.
• Due to RAF Fairford's location and infrastructure, the airfield is designated as a forward operating location for the US Air Force.
• RAF Fairford was the only TransOceanic Abort Landing site for NASA's Space Shuttle in the UK.
• 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.
• 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.

Facts about La Unión Airport (LUI):

• In addition to being known as "La Unión Airport", other names for LUI include "La Unión Airport (Marchigüe)", "Aeropuerto La Unión" and "SCLU".
• La Unión Airport (LUI) currently has only 1 runway.
• The closest airport to La Unión Airport (LUI) is Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL), which is located 83 miles (134 kilometers) NE of LUI.
• The furthest airport from La Unión Airport (LUI) is Xi'an Xianyang International Airport (XIY), which is nearly antipodal to La Unión Airport (meaning La Unión Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Xi'an Xianyang International Airport), and is located 12,412 miles (19,976 kilometers) away in Xianyang, Shaanxi, China.
• Because of La Unión Airport's relatively low elevation of 528 feet, planes can take off or land at La Unión 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.