Nonstop flight route between Goroka, Papua New Guinea and Wallops Island, Virginia, United States:
Departure Airport:
Arrival Airport:
Distance from GKA to WAL:
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- About this route
- GKA Airport Information
- WAL Airport Information
- Facts about GKA
- Facts about WAL
- Map of Nearest Airports to GKA
- List of Nearest Airports to GKA
- Map of Furthest Airports from GKA
- List of Furthest Airports from GKA
- Map of Nearest Airports to WAL
- List of Nearest Airports to WAL
- Map of Furthest Airports from WAL
- List of Furthest Airports from WAL
About this route:
A direct, nonstop flight between Goroka Airport (GKA), Goroka, Papua New Guinea and Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL), Wallops Island, Virginia, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 9,063 miles (or 14,585 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 Goroka Airport 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 Goroka Airport 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:
IATA / ICAO Codes: | GKA / AYGA |
Airport Name: | Goroka Airport |
Location: | Goroka, Papua New Guinea |
GPS Coordinates: | 6°4'54"S by 145°23'30"E |
Airport Type: | Public |
Elevation: | 5282 feet (1,610 meters) |
# of Runways: | 2 |
View all routes: | Routes from GKA |
More Information: | GKA Maps & Info |
Arrival Airport Information:
IATA / ICAO Codes: | WAL / KWAL |
Airport Name: | Wallops Flight Facility Airport |
Location: | Wallops Island, Virginia, United States |
GPS Coordinates: | 37°56'24"N by 75°27'59"W |
Elevation: | 0 feet (0 meters) |
View all routes: | Routes from WAL |
More Information: | WAL Maps & Info |
Facts about Goroka Airport (GKA):
- The furthest airport from Goroka Airport (GKA) is Governador Carlos Wilson Airport (FEN), which is located 11,734 miles (18,884 kilometers) away in Fernando de Noronha, Pernambuco, Brazil.
- Goroka Airport (GKA) has 2 runways.
- Because of Goroka Airport's high elevation of 5,282 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at GKA. Combined with a high temperature, this could make GKA a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.
- The closest airport to Goroka Airport (GKA) is Chimbu Airport (CMU), which is located 29 miles (47 kilometers) W of GKA.
Facts about Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL):
- The Wallops Research Range includes ground-based and mobile systems, and a range control center.
- The first payload launched into orbit from Wallops Island was Explorer IX, atop a Scout rocket, on February 15, 1961.
- 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 closest airport to Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL) is Accomack County Airport (MFV), which is located 26 miles (42 kilometers) SW of WAL.
- AFSS is a project to develop an autonomous on-board system that could augment or replace traditional ground-commanded Range Safety flight termination systems.
- 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.
- Early research rockets at Wallops Island
- 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.
- 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.