Nonstop flight route between Tacoma, Washington, United States and Frankfurt, Germany:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Gray Army Airfield (GRF), Tacoma, Washington, United States and Frankfurt Airport (FRA), Frankfurt, Germany would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,122 miles (or 8,243 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 Gray Army Airfield and Frankfurt 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 Gray Army Airfield and Frankfurt 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 Gray Army Airfield (GRF):

• The Fort Lewis airfield housed observation planes.
• Because of Gray Army Airfield's relatively low elevation of 300 feet, planes can take off or land at Gray Army Airfield 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.
• Gray Army Airfield (GRF) currently has only 1 runway.
• August 1984 saw GAAF become one of few test centers for the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters.
• Company A, 5th Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment, conducts high-altitude search-and-rescue operations.
• In addition to being known as "Gray Army Airfield", another name for GRF is "(Joint Base Lewis-McChord)".
• Used to support Fort Lewis, Army helicopters assisted with medical evacuations at Mount Rainier National Park on numerous occasions in the 1970s.
• After the Korean War, the 2d Aviation Company, of the 2d Infantry Division, which had been the first helicopter unit in Korea, returned to Fort Lewis with observation/spotter aircraft L-19 Bird Dogs, and L-20 Beavers, as well as H-23 Raven helicopters.
• The Air Transport Command.
• The closest airport to Gray Army Airfield (GRF) is McChord Field/McChord AFB (TCM), which is located only 6 miles (10 kilometers) NE of GRF.
• The furthest airport from Gray Army Airfield (GRF) is Tôlanaro Airport (FTU), which is located 10,809 miles (17,395 kilometers) away in Tôlanaro, Madagascar.

Facts about Frankfurt Airport (FRA):

• After the beginning of World War II in 1939 all foreign airlines left the airport and control of air traffic was transferred to the Luftwaffe.
• With the foundation of Deutsche Luft Hansa in 1926 a rapid boom of civilian air travel started and soon the airship base became too small to handle the demand.
• The airport is centrally located in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region, Germany's second-largest metropolitan region, which itself has a central location in the densely populated region of the west-central European megalopolis.
• Frankfurt Airport handled 5,752,725 passengers last year.
• The runway officially went into operation on 20 October 2011, with an aircraft carrying Chancellor Angela Merkel performing the first landing on 21 October.
• Frankfurt Airport lies 12 km southwest of central Frankfurt, near the Autobahn intersection Frankfurter Kreuz, where two of the most heavily used motorways in Europe meet.
• Because of Frankfurt Airport's relatively low elevation of 364 feet, planes can take off or land at Frankfurt 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.
• Terminal 1 is the older and larger one of the two passenger terminals.
• The closest airport to Frankfurt Airport (FRA) is Lucius D. Clay KaserneWiesbaden Army AirfieldWiesbaden Air BaseAdvanced Landing Ground Y-80Fliegerhorst Wiesbaden (WIE), which is located only 11 miles (18 kilometers) W of FRA.
• In 1990, work on a new terminal began because it was anticipated that Terminal Mitte would reach its capacity limit sooner than expected.
• Frankfurt Airport (FRA) has 3 runways.
• In 1951 restrictions for German air travellers were lifted and civil air traffic started to grow again.
• The furthest airport from Frankfurt Airport (FRA) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,946 miles (19,225 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• In addition to being known as "Frankfurt Airport", another name for FRA is "Flughafen Frankfurt am Main".