Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Raton, New Mexico, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Raton Municipal Airport (RTN), Raton, New Mexico, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,760 miles (or 7,661 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 Raton Municipal 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 Raton Municipal 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 was constructed in 1944 to serve as an airfield for British and American troop carriers and gliders for the D-Day invasion of Normandy during World War II.
• 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.
• Due to RAF Fairford's location and infrastructure, the airfield is designated as a forward operating location for the US Air Force.
• KC-135 and KC-10 tankers deployed to Fairford supported Operation El Dorado Canyon against Libya in 1986.
• RAF Fairford was the only TransOceanic Abort Landing site for NASA's Space Shuttle in the UK.
• Operations staff and maintenance personnel were permanently assigned, but aircraft, aircrews and crew chiefs were temporarily assigned to the 11th Strategic Group for the European Tanker Task Force on rotation.

Facts about Raton Municipal Airport (RTN):

• In addition to being known as "Raton Municipal Airport", another name for RTN is "Crews Field".
• Because of Raton Municipal Airport's high elevation of 6,352 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at RTN. Combined with a high temperature, this could make RTN a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.
• The furthest airport from Raton Municipal Airport (RTN) is Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport (RRG), which is located 11,053 miles (17,788 kilometers) away in Rodrigues Island, Mauritius.
• Raton Municipal Airport (RTN) has 2 runways.
• The closest airport to Raton Municipal Airport (RTN) is Perry Stokes Airport (TAD), which is located 37 miles (59 kilometers) NNE of RTN.
• Until around 1954 Continental Airlines stopped there, a DC-3 a day each way between Denver and Albuquerque, but Raton may not have seen an airliner since then.