Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Maupiti, Leeward Islands, French Polynesia:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Maupiti Airport (MAU), Maupiti, Leeward Islands, French Polynesia would travel a Great Circle distance of 9,512 miles (or 15,308 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 Maupiti 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 Maupiti 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):

• RAF Fairford is also the home of the Royal International Air Tattoo, an annual air display.
• In 1950, as a result of the beginning of the Cold War, the airfield was transferred to the U.S.
• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 Maupiti Airport (MAU):

• The furthest airport from Maupiti Airport (MAU) is El Debba Airport (EDB), which is nearly antipodal to Maupiti Airport (meaning Maupiti Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from El Debba Airport), and is located 12,198 miles (19,631 kilometers) away in El Debba (Al Dabbah), Sudan.
• The closest airport to Maupiti Airport (MAU) is Bora Bora Airport (BOB), which is located 33 miles (52 kilometers) E of MAU.
• Maupiti Airport (MAU) currently has only 1 runway.
• Because of Maupiti Airport's relatively low elevation of 15 feet, planes can take off or land at Maupiti 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.