Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Grand Canyon, Arizona, United States:
Departure Airport:

Arrival Airport:

Distance from FFD to VLE:
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- About this route
- FFD Airport Information
- VLE Airport Information
- Facts about FFD
- Facts about VLE
- Map of Nearest Airports to FFD
- List of Nearest Airports to FFD
- Map of Furthest Airports from FFD
- List of Furthest Airports from FFD
- Map of Nearest Airports to VLE
- List of Nearest Airports to VLE
- Map of Furthest Airports from VLE
- List of Furthest Airports from VLE
About this route:
A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Valle Airport (VLE), Grand Canyon, Arizona, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,086 miles (or 8,186 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 Valle 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 Valle Airport. You'll see that it will travel the same route of the red line on this map!
Departure Airport Information:
IATA / ICAO Codes: | FFD / EGVA |
Airport Name: | RAF Fairford |
Location: | Fairford, England, United Kingdom |
GPS Coordinates: | 51°40'55"N by 1°47'24"W |
Operator/Owner: | Ministry of Defence |
View all routes: | Routes from FFD |
More Information: | FFD Maps & Info |
Arrival Airport Information:
IATA / ICAO Codes: | VLE / |
Airport Names: |
|
Location: | Grand Canyon, Arizona, United States |
GPS Coordinates: | 35°38'58"N by 112°8'30"W |
Area Served: | Valle, Arizona |
Airport Type: | Public |
Elevation: | 5999 feet (1,828 meters) |
# of Runways: | 1 |
View all routes: | Routes from VLE |
More Information: | VLE Maps & Info |
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.
- 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.
- RAF Fairford is also the home of the Royal International Air Tattoo, an annual air display.
- 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.
- KC-135 and KC-10 tankers deployed to Fairford supported Operation El Dorado Canyon against Libya in 1986.
- In 1950, as a result of the beginning of the Cold War, the airfield was transferred to the U.S.
Facts about Valle Airport (VLE):
- The closest airport to Valle Airport (VLE) is Grand Canyon National Park Airport (GCN), which is located 21 miles (34 kilometers) N of VLE.
- Valle Airport covers an area of 330 acres at an elevation of 5,999 feet above mean sea level.
- Valle Airport (VLE) currently has only 1 runway.
- The furthest airport from Valle Airport (VLE) is Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport (RRG), which is located 11,305 miles (18,194 kilometers) away in Rodrigues Island, Mauritius.
- Because of Valle Airport's high elevation of 5,999 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at VLE. Combined with a high temperature, this could make VLE a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.
- In addition to being known as "Valle Airport", another name for VLE is "40G".