Nonstop flight route between Goundam, Mali and Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Goundam Airport (GUD), Goundam, Mali and RAF Lakenheath (LKZ), Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 2,501 miles (or 4,025 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 Goundam Airport and RAF Lakenheath, 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 Goundam Airport and RAF Lakenheath. 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 Goundam Airport (GUD):

• The closest airport to Goundam Airport (GUD) is Timbuktu Airport (TOM), which is located 47 miles (75 kilometers) ENE of GUD.
• The furthest airport from Goundam Airport (GUD) is Yasawa Island Airport (YAS), which is nearly antipodal to Goundam Airport (meaning Goundam Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Yasawa Island Airport), and is located 12,356 miles (19,885 kilometers) away in Yasawa Island, Fiji.

Facts about RAF Lakenheath (LKZ):

• The increasing tension of the Cold War lead to a re-evaluation of these deployments, and by 1953 SAC bombers began to move its heavy bomb groups further west, behind RAF fighter forces, to RAF Brize Norton, RAF Greenham Common, RAF Upper Heyford and RAF Fairford, while its shorter-range B-47 were sent to East Anglia.
• The closest airport to RAF Lakenheath (LKZ) is RAF Mildenhall (MHZ), which is located only 4 miles (7 kilometers) SW of LKZ.
• In response to the threat by the Soviet Union, by the 1948 Berlin blockade, President Truman decided to realign USAFE into a permanent combat-capable force.
• On 1 May 1951, Lakenheath was transferred from USAFE to SAC, and placed under the 3909th Air Base Group.
• Control of RAF Lakenheath was allocated to Third Air Force at South Ruislip Air Station, which had command of SAC B-29 operations in England.
• Aircraft of the 48th FW carry the tail code "LN".
• The furthest airport from RAF Lakenheath (LKZ) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,827 miles (19,034 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.