Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, China:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Zhangjiakou Ningyuan Airport (ZQZ), Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, China would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,009 miles (or 8,061 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 Zhangjiakou Ningyuan 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 Zhangjiakou Ningyuan 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):

• 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.
• RAF Fairford was the only TransOceanic Abort Landing site for NASA's Space Shuttle in the UK.
• 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.
• Fairford was chosen in 1969 as the British test centre for the Concorde aircraft, which continued until 1977.
• 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 Zhangjiakou Ningyuan Airport (ZQZ):

• In addition to being known as "Zhangjiakou Ningyuan Airport", other names for ZQZ include "张家口宁远机场" and "Zhāngjiākǒu Níngyuǎn Jīchǎng".
• The furthest airport from Zhangjiakou Ningyuan Airport (ZQZ) is Antoine de Saint Exupéry Airport (OES), which is nearly antipodal to Zhangjiakou Ningyuan Airport (meaning Zhangjiakou Ningyuan Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Antoine de Saint Exupéry Airport), and is located 12,435 miles (20,012 kilometers) away in San Antonio Oeste, Argentina.
• The closest airport to Zhangjiakou Ningyuan Airport (ZQZ) is Datong Yungang Airport (DAT), which is located 89 miles (144 kilometers) WSW of ZQZ.