Nonstop flight route between Florence, Italy and Wallops Island, Virginia, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Florence Airport, Peretola (FLR), Florence, Italy and Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL), Wallops Island, Virginia, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,332 miles (or 6,972 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 Florence Airport, Peretola and Wallops Flight Facility 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 Florence Airport, Peretola and Wallops Flight Facility 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 Florence Airport, Peretola (FLR):

• Florence Airport, Peretola (FLR) currently has only 1 runway.
• In addition to being known as "Florence Airport, Peretola", another name for FLR is "Aeroporto di Firenze-Peretola".
• The furthest airport from Florence Airport, Peretola (FLR) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is nearly antipodal to Florence Airport, Peretola (meaning Florence Airport, Peretola is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Chatham Islands), and is located 12,055 miles (19,401 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• The closest airport to Florence Airport, Peretola (FLR) is Siena-Ampugnano Airport (SAY), which is located 38 miles (62 kilometers) S of FLR.
• Because of Florence Airport, Peretola's relatively low elevation of 144 feet, planes can take off or land at Florence Airport, Peretola 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 1992 the building now dedicated to arrivals, constructed by AdF, was inaugurated.
• On December 5, 2012 Vueling has announced the opening of a new base of operations from which to fly to Florence to several destinations in Europe.
• Florence Airport, Peretola formerly Amerigo Vespucci Airport, is an airport located close to Florence, Italy, but administratively located within the territory of Sesto Fiorentino.

Facts about Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL):

• The first payload launched into orbit from Wallops Island was Explorer IX, atop a Scout rocket, on February 15, 1961.
• The closest airport to Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL) is Accomack County Airport (MFV), which is located 26 miles (42 kilometers) SW of WAL.
• LCT2 is an effort to produce a relatively low-cost transceiver to allow launch vehicles to communicate through NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System after they have gone over the horizon from the launch site.
• There have been over 16,000 launches from the rocket testing range at Wallops since its founding in 1945 in the quest for information on the flight characteristics of airplanes, launch vehicles, and spacecraft, and to increase the knowledge of the Earth's upper atmosphere and the environment of outer space.
• The furthest airport from Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 11,785 miles (18,965 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.
• In 1998, the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, later joined by Maryland, built the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops on land leased from NASA.
• Because of Wallops Flight Facility Airport's relatively low elevation of 0 feet, planes can take off or land at Wallops Flight Facility 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 the early years, research at Wallops concentrated on obtaining aerodynamic data at transonic and low supersonic speeds.
• In 1959, NASA acquired the former Naval Air Station Chincoteague, and engineering and administrative activities were moved to this location.
• Wallops Flight Facility, located on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, is operated by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, primarily as a rocket launch site to support science and exploration missions for N.A.S.A.
• AFSS is a project to develop an autonomous on-board system that could augment or replace traditional ground-commanded Range Safety flight termination systems.
• Major Wallops facilities include FAA-certified runways.