Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Yichun, Jiangxi, China:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Yichun Mingyueshan Airport (YIC), Yichun, Jiangxi, China would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,723 miles (or 9,211 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 Yichun Mingyueshan 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 Yichun Mingyueshan 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 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Fairford was chosen in 1969 as the British test centre for the Concorde aircraft, which continued until 1977.
• 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.
• 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 Yichun Mingyueshan Airport (YIC):

• The closest airport to Yichun Mingyueshan Airport (YIC) is Jinggangshan Airport (JGS), which is located 70 miles (113 kilometers) SSE of YIC.
• The furthest airport from Yichun Mingyueshan Airport (YIC) is Coronel Felipe Varela International Airport (CTC), which is nearly antipodal to Yichun Mingyueshan Airport (meaning Yichun Mingyueshan Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Coronel Felipe Varela International Airport), and is located 12,382 miles (19,927 kilometers) away in Catamarca, Catamarca, Argentina.
• Because of Yichun Mingyueshan Airport's relatively low elevation of 131 feet, planes can take off or land at Yichun Mingyueshan 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 "Yichun Mingyueshan Airport", other names for YIC include "宜春明月山机场", "Yíchūn Míngyuèshān Jīchǎng" and "ZSYC".