Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Tonghua, Jilin, China:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Tonghua Sanyuanpu Airport (TNH), Tonghua, Jilin, China would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,225 miles (or 8,409 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 Tonghua Sanyuanpu 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 Tonghua Sanyuanpu 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.
• 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.
• KC-135 and KC-10 tankers deployed to Fairford supported Operation El Dorado Canyon against Libya in 1986.
• The 422nd ABG at RAF Croughton and the 420th Air Base Squadron are responsible for the day-to-day operations of RAF Fairford, ensuring that it has adequate resources.
• 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.
• 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.
• On 12 May 2005, USAFE activated the 501st Combat Support Wing, with headquarters at RAF Alconbury, to provide support to its GSUs in the United Kingdom.
• 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.

Facts about Tonghua Sanyuanpu Airport (TNH):

• In addition to being known as "Tonghua Sanyuanpu Airport", other names for TNH include "通化三源浦机场" and "Tōnghuà Sānyuánpǔ Jīchǎng".
• The furthest airport from Tonghua Sanyuanpu Airport (TNH) is Miramar Airport (MJR), which is nearly antipodal to Tonghua Sanyuanpu Airport (meaning Tonghua Sanyuanpu Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Miramar Airport), and is located 12,101 miles (19,474 kilometers) away in Miramar, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• The closest airport to Tonghua Sanyuanpu Airport (TNH) is Changbaishan Airport (NBS), which is located 95 miles (153 kilometers) E of TNH.