Nonstop flight route between Kaimana, Papua, Indonesia and Fairford, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Kaimana Airport (KNG), Kaimana, Papua, Indonesia and RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 8,251 miles (or 13,278 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 Kaimana Airport 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 Kaimana Airport 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 Kaimana Airport (KNG):

• The furthest airport from Kaimana Airport (KNG) is Belém/Val de Cans–Júlio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport (BEL), which is nearly antipodal to Kaimana Airport (meaning Kaimana Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Belém/Val de Cans–Júlio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport), and is located 12,058 miles (19,406 kilometers) away in Belém, Pará, Brazil.
• Kaimana Airport (KNG) currently has only 1 runway.
• In addition to being known as "Kaimana Airport", another name for KNG is "Bandar Udara Kaimana".
• Because of Kaimana Airport's relatively low elevation of 19 feet, planes can take off or land at Kaimana 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 closest airport to Kaimana Airport (KNG) is Babo Airport (BXB), which is located 78 miles (126 kilometers) NNW of KNG.

Facts about RAF Fairford (FFD):

• 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.
• In 1950, as a result of the beginning of the Cold War, the airfield was transferred to the U.S.
• 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.
• Due to the deteriorating airfield facilities and its unique NATO heavy bomber mission, RAF Fairford underwent a $100 million upgrade of its runway and fuel systems in the largest NATO funded airfield construction project within a NATO country since the end of the Cold War.
• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
• Operations staff and maintenance personnel were permanently assigned, but aircraft, aircrews and crew chiefs were temporarily assigned to the 11th Strategic Group for the European Tanker Task Force on rotation.
• 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.