Nonstop flight route between St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom and Tonopah, Nevada, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between St Mary's Airport (ISC), St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom and Tonopah Test Range Airport (XSD), Tonopah, Nevada, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,050 miles (or 8,128 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 St Mary's Airport and Tonopah Test Range 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 St Mary's Airport and Tonopah Test Range 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 St Mary's Airport (ISC):

• St Mary's Airport (ISC) has 2 runways.
• St Mary's Airport handled 89,170 passengers last year.
• The furthest airport from St Mary's Airport (ISC) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is nearly antipodal to St Mary's Airport (meaning St Mary's Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Dunedin International Airport), and is located 12,117 miles (19,501 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• On 2 May 1964, BEA replaced its Dragon Rapides on the Land's End route with a single Sikorsky S-61 helicopter, operated by BEA Helicopters.
• The current 600m asphalt runway, 15/33, was built in 1991.
• In addition to being known as "St Mary's Airport", other names for ISC include "Isles of Scilly Airport" and "Scilly Isles/St Mary's Airport".
• The closest airport to St Mary's Airport (ISC) is Tresco Heliport (TSO), which is located only 3 miles (5 kilometers) NW of ISC.
• Because of St Mary's Airport's relatively low elevation of 116 feet, planes can take off or land at St Mary's 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.
• In 1984 Isles of Scilly Skybus started flights to St Mary's from Land's End, initially freight and charter.

Facts about Tonopah Test Range Airport (XSD):

• In July 1975, the 4477th Tactical Evaluation Flight was formed at Nellis AFB as tactical evaluation organization.
• The MiG-21 posed a major threat to Israeli Air Defenses as well as to American pilots over the skies of North Vietnam.
• The closest airport to Tonopah Test Range Airport (XSD) is Tonopah Airport (TPH), which is located 25 miles (40 kilometers) NW of XSD.
• On 12 August 1968, the IDF obtained two Syrian Air Force MiG-17F fighters that had gotten lost during a training flight and landed inadvertently at Besert Landing Field, Israel.
• In 2006, the Constant Peg program was declassified and the USAF held a series of press conferences about the former top secret US MiGs.
• In 1997, the United States purchased 21 Moldovan aircraft for evaluation and analysis, under the Cooperative Threat Reduction accord.
• The furthest airport from Tonopah Test Range Airport (XSD) is Pierrefonds Airport (ZSE), which is located 11,207 miles (18,036 kilometers) away in Saint-Pierre, Réunion.
• Near the end of the Cold War the program was abandoned and the squadron was disbanded.