Nonstop flight route between Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom and Kirksville, Missouri, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Lakenheath (LKZ), Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom and Kirksville Regional Airport (IRK), Kirksville, Missouri, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,214 miles (or 6,781 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 Kirksville 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 Lakenheath and Kirksville 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 Lakenheath (LKZ):

• The work entailed removal of the existing runways and laying new ones comprising 12 inches of high-grade concrete.
• The increasing tension of the Cold War lead to a re-evaluation of these deployments, and by 1953 SAC bombers began to move its heavy bomb groups further west, behind RAF fighter forces, to RAF Brize Norton, RAF Greenham Common, RAF Upper Heyford and RAF Fairford, while its shorter-range B-47 were sent to East Anglia.
• 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 April 1947, RAF Bomber Command returned to Lakenheath and had the runways repaired, resurfaced, and readied for operations by May 1948.
• The closest airport to RAF Lakenheath (LKZ) is RAF Mildenhall (MHZ), which is located only 4 miles (7 kilometers) SW of LKZ.
• The first use of Lakenheath Warren as a Royal Flying Corps airfield was in World War I, when the area was made into a bombing and ground-attack range for aircraft flying from elsewhere in the area.

Facts about Kirksville Regional Airport (IRK):

• Kirksville Regional Airport (IRK) has 2 runways.
• Kirksville Regional Airport covers an area of 476 acres at an elevation of 966 feet above mean sea level.
• The closest airport to Kirksville Regional Airport (IRK) is Trenton Municipal Airport (TRX), which is located 55 miles (89 kilometers) W of IRK.
• The furthest airport from Kirksville Regional Airport (IRK) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 10,860 miles (17,478 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.
• Because of Kirksville Regional Airport's relatively low elevation of 966 feet, planes can take off or land at Kirksville Regional 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.
• Aviation in the Kirksville area began in the Kirksville area within a few years of the Wright brothers historic flight.