Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Smith Field (SMD), Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,817 miles (or 6,142 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 Smith Field, 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 Smith Field. 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):

• KC-135 and KC-10 tankers deployed to Fairford supported Operation El Dorado Canyon against Libya in 1986.
• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 Smith Field (SMD):

• The closest airport to Smith Field (SMD) is Fort Wayne International Airport (FWA), which is located only 12 miles (19 kilometers) S of SMD.
• Smith Field (SMD) has 4 runways.
• The furthest airport from Smith Field (SMD) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 11,224 miles (18,064 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.
• The United States government’s pioneering of a national airmail system begun in 1918, provided essential subsidies for America’s fledgling airline industry.
• Because of Smith Field's relatively low elevation of 835 feet, planes can take off or land at Smith Field 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.
• In 2010 Runway 5/23 was rebuilt.
• Smith Field is Fort Wayne's first municipal airport and is one of America's oldest surviving aviation sites.