Nonstop flight route between Hachinohe, Honshū, Japan and Fairford, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between JMSDF Hachinohe Air Base (HHE), Hachinohe, Honshū, Japan and RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,692 miles (or 9,160 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 JMSDF Hachinohe Air Base and RAF Fairford, 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 JMSDF Hachinohe Air Base and RAF Fairford. 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 JMSDF Hachinohe Air Base (HHE):

• The closest airport to JMSDF Hachinohe Air Base (HHE) is Misawa Air Base 三沢飛行場 Misawa Hikōjō (MSJ), which is located only 12 miles (19 kilometers) NNW of HHE.
• The furthest airport from JMSDF Hachinohe Air Base (HHE) is Rio Grande Regional Airport (RIG), which is located 11,480 miles (18,476 kilometers) away in Rio Grande, Brazil.
• Because of JMSDF Hachinohe Air Base's relatively low elevation of 152 feet, planes can take off or land at JMSDF Hachinohe Air Base 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.
• With the start of the Korean War in 1950, the base was turned over to the Japanese National Police Reserve, the immediate predecessor to the Japan Defense Agency.
• JMSDF Hachinohe Air Base is currently the headquarters of the JMSDF Fleet Air Wing 2, which is equipped with Kawasaki-Lockheed P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft, and which is responsible for patrols of the seaward approaches to northern Japan.
• JMSDF Hachinohe Air Base (HHE) currently has only 1 runway.
• In addition to being known as "JMSDF Hachinohe Air Base", other names for HHE include "八戸航空基地" and "Hachinohe Koku-kichi".
• In 1963, American authorities banned civilian air traffic to Misawa Air Base, citing safety and security reasons, and commercial air operations were transferred to Hachinohe.

Facts about RAF Fairford (FFD):

• The runway was completed in 1953, and served as a forward airbase for the first Convair B-36 Peacemaker aircraft from Carswell Air Force Base, Texas.
• The furthest airport from RAF Fairford (FFD) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,898 miles (19,148 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
• On 14 January 2004, the 420th Air Base Group was established at RAF Fairford to improve the control of its geographically separated units that had been aligned beneath the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall.
• On 15 September 2009, it was announced that the USAF will withdraw all their uniformed staff from the station by September 2010, after which it will be run on a "care and maintenance" basis.
• The 422nd ABG at RAF Croughton and the 420th Air Base Squadron are responsible for the day-to-day operations of RAF Fairford, ensuring that it has adequate resources.