Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Wuhan, Hubei, China:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Wuhan Tianhe International Airport (WUH), Wuhan, Hubei, China would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,550 miles (or 8,932 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 Wuhan Tianhe International 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 Wuhan Tianhe International 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 is also the home of the Royal International Air Tattoo, an annual air display.
• 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 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.
• Fairford was chosen in 1969 as the British test centre for the Concorde aircraft, which continued until 1977.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 Wuhan Tianhe International Airport (WUH):

• The future Wuhan–Xiaogan Intercity Railway, one of the lines of the Wuhan Metropolitan Area Intercity Railway, will serve Wuhan Tianhe Airport.
• Airport departure hall
• A Xinhua Airline plane in front of the then Terminal 2
• Because of Wuhan Tianhe International Airport's relatively low elevation of 112 feet, planes can take off or land at Wuhan Tianhe International 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.
• The furthest airport from Wuhan Tianhe International Airport (WUH) is La Cumbre Airport (LCM), which is nearly antipodal to Wuhan Tianhe International Airport (meaning Wuhan Tianhe International Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from La Cumbre Airport), and is located 12,361 miles (19,892 kilometers) away in La Cumbre, Córdoba, Argentina.
• In addition to being known as "Wuhan Tianhe International Airport", other names for WUH include "武汉天河国际机场" and "Wǔhàn Tiānhé Guójì Jīchǎng".
• The closest airport to Wuhan Tianhe International Airport (WUH) is Shashi Airport (SHS), which is located 119 miles (192 kilometers) WSW of WUH.
• Wuhan Tianhe International Airport handled 11,646,789 passengers last year.
• Wuhan Tianhe International Airport (WUH) currently has only 1 runway.