Nonstop flight route between Fort Sumner, New Mexico, United States and Bitam, Gabon:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Fort Sumner Municipal Airport (FSU), Fort Sumner, New Mexico, United States and Bitam Airport (BMM), Bitam, Gabon would travel a Great Circle distance of 7,578 miles (or 12,196 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 Fort Sumner Municipal Airport and Bitam 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 Fort Sumner Municipal Airport and Bitam 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 Fort Sumner Municipal Airport (FSU):

• The airfield's origins date to the 1920s when the Transcontinental Air Transport airline built an airfield in Fort Sumner as part of its coast-to-coast air passenger network, but the site was abandoned when the airline's ambitious plans collapsed in the Great Depression.
• The closest airport to Fort Sumner Municipal Airport (FSU) is Cannon Air Force Base Clovis Air Force Base/AAF (CVS), which is located 51 miles (83 kilometers) E of FSU.
• In the 1980s, the airport was chosen as a launch site for NASA's high altitude balloon program.
• The furthest airport from Fort Sumner Municipal Airport (FSU) is Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport (RRG), which is located 11,167 miles (17,971 kilometers) away in Rodrigues Island, Mauritius.
• Because of Fort Sumner Municipal Airport's high elevation of 4,165 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at FSU. Combined with a high temperature, this could make FSU a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.
• The facility was inactivated on November 15, 1945 and returned to civil control.
• In addition to being known as "Fort Sumner Municipal Airport", another name for FSU is "Fort Sumner Army Airfield".
• Fort Sumner Municipal Airport (FSU) has 2 runways.
• For the 12-month period ending April 9, 2011, the airport had 150 general aviation aircraft operations, an average of 12 per month.

Facts about Bitam Airport (BMM):

• Bitam Airport (BMM) currently has only 1 runway.
• The closest airport to Bitam Airport (BMM) is Ebolowa Airport (EBW), which is located 59 miles (96 kilometers) NNW of BMM.
• The furthest airport from Bitam Airport (BMM) is Canton Island Airport (CIS), which is nearly antipodal to Bitam Airport (meaning Bitam Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Canton Island Airport), and is located 12,211 miles (19,651 kilometers) away in Canton Island, Kiribati.