Nonstop flight route between Qiemo, Xinjiang, China and Wallops Island, Virginia, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Qiemo Airport (IQM), Qiemo, Xinjiang, China and Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL), Wallops Island, Virginia, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 7,042 miles (or 11,333 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 Qiemo Airport and Wallops Flight Facility 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 Qiemo Airport and Wallops Flight Facility 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 Qiemo Airport (IQM):

• In addition to being known as "Qiemo Airport", other names for IQM include "且末机场" and "Qiěmò Jīchǎng".
• The closest airport to Qiemo Airport (IQM) is Korla Airport (KRL), which is located 242 miles (389 kilometers) N of IQM.
• Because of Qiemo Airport's high elevation of 4,108 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at IQM. Combined with a high temperature, this could make IQM a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.
• Qiemo Airport (IQM) currently has only 1 runway.
• The furthest airport from Qiemo Airport (IQM) is Pupelde Airfield (ZUD), which is located 11,316 miles (18,211 kilometers) away in Ancud, Los Lagos Region, Chile.

Facts about Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL):

• Major Wallops facilities include FAA-certified runways.
• Because of Wallops Flight Facility Airport's relatively low elevation of 0 feet, planes can take off or land at Wallops Flight Facility 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.
• The furthest airport from Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 11,785 miles (18,965 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.
• The closest airport to Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL) is Accomack County Airport (MFV), which is located 26 miles (42 kilometers) SW of WAL.
• LCT2 is an effort to produce a relatively low-cost transceiver to allow launch vehicles to communicate through NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System after they have gone over the horizon from the launch site.
• On September 6, 2013, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer was launched from Wallops, atop a Minotaur V rocket.
• The Wallops mobile range instrumentation includes telemetry, radar, command and power systems.
• There have been over 16,000 launches from the rocket testing range at Wallops since its founding in 1945 in the quest for information on the flight characteristics of airplanes, launch vehicles, and spacecraft, and to increase the knowledge of the Earth's upper atmosphere and the environment of outer space.
• In 1959, NASA acquired the former Naval Air Station Chincoteague, and engineering and administrative activities were moved to this location.