Nonstop flight route between Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom and Challis, Idaho, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Lakenheath (LKZ), Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom and Challis Airport (CHL), Challis, Idaho, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,704 miles (or 7,570 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 Lakenheath and Challis 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 Lakenheath and Challis 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 Lakenheath (LKZ):

• Although an RAF station, it hosts United States Air Force units and personnel.
• The closest airport to RAF Lakenheath (LKZ) is RAF Mildenhall (MHZ), which is located only 4 miles (7 kilometers) SW of LKZ.
• The work entailed removal of the existing runways and laying new ones comprising 12 inches of high-grade concrete.
• The furthest airport from RAF Lakenheath (LKZ) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,827 miles (19,034 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• In conjunction with this transfer, control of RAF Lakenheath was transferred from Strategic Air Command back to USAFE.
• Control of RAF Lakenheath was allocated to Third Air Force at South Ruislip Air Station, which had command of SAC B-29 operations in England.
• In 1940, the Air Ministry selected Lakenheath as an alternative for RAF Mildenhall and used it as a decoy airfield.
• In 1941, hard runways were put down with the main runway, 04/22, being 2,000 yards, and the subsidiaries, 12/30 at 1,300 yards and 16/34 at 1,400 yards.
• In April 1947, RAF Bomber Command returned to Lakenheath and had the runways repaired, resurfaced, and readied for operations by May 1948.

Facts about Challis Airport (CHL):

• The furthest airport from Challis Airport (CHL) is Pierrefonds Airport (ZSE), which is located 10,728 miles (17,265 kilometers) away in Saint-Pierre, Réunion.
• The closest airport to Challis Airport (CHL) is Lemhi County Airport (SMN), which is located 45 miles (72 kilometers) NNE of CHL.
• Challis Airport (CHL) currently has only 1 runway.
• Because of Challis Airport's high elevation of 5,072 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at CHL. Combined with a high temperature, this could make CHL a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.
• In addition to being known as "Challis Airport", another name for CHL is "LLJ".