Nonstop flight route between Herat, Afghanistan and Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Herat International Airport (HEA), Herat, Afghanistan and RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,325 miles (or 5,352 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 Herat International Airport and RAF Brize Norton, 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 Herat International Airport and RAF Brize Norton. 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 Herat International Airport (HEA):

• ISAF use has continued since 2005, joined by the Afghan National Army Air Corps, now Afghan Air Force, and the Afghan National Police.
• Herat International Airport (HEA) currently has only 1 runway.
• In addition to being known as "Herat International Airport", other names for HEA include "Herat Airport (Herat)" and "Persian: میدان هوایی بین المللی هرات‎".
• The closest airport to Herat International Airport (HEA) is Qala i Naw Airport د قلعه نوهوائی ډګر (LQN), which is located 74 miles (119 kilometers) NE of HEA.
• The furthest airport from Herat International Airport (HEA) is Mataveri International Airport (IPC), which is located 11,742 miles (18,897 kilometers) away in Easter Island, Chile.

Facts about RAF Brize Norton (BZZ):

• The station is home to the Administrative Wing, Airport of Embarkation Wing, Depth Support Wing, Forward Support Wing and Operations Wing.
• The closest airport to RAF Brize Norton (BZZ) is RAF Fairford (FFD), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) WSW of BZZ.
• By March 2011, 70 buildings had been refurbished on the station.
• The furthest airport from RAF Brize Norton (BZZ) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,888 miles (19,132 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• By the 1950s Cold War tension was escalating and the United States envisaged stationing nuclear bombers in the United Kingdom as a deterrent to Soviet aggression.
• Brize Norton is already a major airbase for the RAF's transport fleet.
• RAF Brize Norton was opened in 1937 as a training station and one of the first squadrons to use the airfield was No.
• With the closure of RAF Lyneham taking place in late 2011, the repatriation of British personnel was relocated to Brize Norton on 8 September 2011.
• On 23 May 2001 the RAF's first C-17 arrived at Brize Norton, one of six to be delivered to 99 Squadron.
• The station is home to Air Transport, Air-to-Air refuelling and Military Parachuting, with aircraft operating from the station including the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, Boeing C-17 Globemaster III and Airbus A330 MRTT Voyager which replaced the now decommissioned Lockheed TriStar in March 2014.