Nonstop flight route between High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom and Rifle, Colorado, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF High Wycombe (HYC), High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom and Garfield County Regional Airport (RIL), Rifle, Colorado, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,760 miles (or 7,661 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 RAF High Wycombe and Garfield County Regional 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 RAF High Wycombe and Garfield County Regional 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 RAF High Wycombe (HYC):

• The closest airport to RAF High Wycombe (HYC) is RAF Benson (BEX), which is located only 13 miles (22 kilometers) WSW of HYC.
• To preserve secrecy, the station was known as "Southdown" in March 1940, as part of a directive by the Air Ministry.
• The motto of RAF High Wycombe in Latin is 'Non Sibi', which translates as 'not for ourselves'.
• The furthest airport from RAF High Wycombe (HYC) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,867 miles (19,098 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• In 1958, Headquarters, 7th Air Division of the Strategic Air Command, supporting SAC operations in UK relocated to High Wycombe from RAF South Ruislip, and commanded all SAC operations until 1965.
• The Ministry of Defence and Serco Group agreed a ten-year contract in February 2010 whereby Serco would provide support services at RAF High Wycombe and RAF Halton, including leisure services, general engineering and catering.
• RAF High Wycombe is a Royal Air Force station, situated in the village of Walters Ash, near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England.
• The site is a non-flying station and was home to RAF Strike Command before it became part of the newly formed RAF Air Command on 1 April 2007.
• Operationally during the Cold War the Director UKWMO would have been located at the United Kingdom Regional Air Operations Command within Strike Command's Operations Centre nuclear bunker at RAF High Wycombe to instigate the national Four minute air raid warnings, with the Deputy Director located at a standby UK RAOC, described at the time as being "elsewhere in the UK", but has since been revealed as being at Goosnargh near Preston within the UKWMO Western Sector nuclear bunker.

Facts about Garfield County Regional Airport (RIL):

• Garfield County Regional Airport (RIL) currently has only 1 runway.
• Because of Garfield County Regional Airport's high elevation of 5,548 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at RIL. Combined with a high temperature, this could make RIL a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.
• The closest airport to Garfield County Regional Airport (RIL) is Eagle County Regional Airport (EGE), which is located 44 miles (71 kilometers) E of RIL.
• The furthest airport from Garfield County Regional Airport (RIL) is Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport (RRG), which is located 10,972 miles (17,657 kilometers) away in Rodrigues Island, Mauritius.