Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Tununak, Alaska, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Tununak Airport (TNK), Tununak, Alaska, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,627 miles (or 7,446 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 Tununak 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 Tununak 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 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 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.
• 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.
• The runway was completed in 1953, and served as a forward airbase for the first Convair B-36 Peacemaker aircraft from Carswell Air Force Base, Texas.
• On 15 September 2009, it was announced that the USAF will withdraw all their uniformed staff from the station by September 2010, after which it will be run on a "care and maintenance" basis.
• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.

Facts about Tununak Airport (TNK):

• As per Federal Aviation Administration records, this airport had 1,809 commercial passenger boardings in calendar year 2008, a decrease of 9.6% from the 2,001 enplanements in 2007.
• Tununak Airport (TNK) currently has only 1 runway.
• The furthest airport from Tununak Airport (TNK) is Cape Town International Airport (CPT), which is located 10,590 miles (17,043 kilometers) away in Cape Town, South Africa.
• Because of Tununak Airport's relatively low elevation of 14 feet, planes can take off or land at Tununak 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.
• In addition to being known as "Tununak Airport", another name for TNK is "4KA".
• The closest airport to Tununak Airport (TNK) is Toksook Bay Airport (OOK), which is located only 7 miles (11 kilometers) ESE of TNK.