Nonstop flight route between Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom and Oakham, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Lakenheath (LKZ), Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom and RAF Cottesmore (OKH), Oakham, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 55 miles (or 89 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 relatively short distance between RAF Lakenheath and RAF Cottesmore, the route shown on this map most likely still appears to be a straight line.

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about RAF Lakenheath (LKZ):

• Although an RAF station, it hosts United States Air Force units and personnel.
• In April 1947, RAF Bomber Command returned to Lakenheath and had the runways repaired, resurfaced, and readied for operations by May 1948.
• In response to the threat by the Soviet Union, by the 1948 Berlin blockade, President Truman decided to realign USAFE into a permanent combat-capable force.
• The closest airport to RAF Lakenheath (LKZ) is RAF Mildenhall (MHZ), which is located only 4 miles (7 kilometers) SW of LKZ.
• 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.
• 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.
• Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union in Europe began as early as 1946.
• 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.

Facts about RAF Cottesmore (OKH):

• However, with the outbreak of war, the aircraft and crews were sent to locations in the north and west, as enemy air attacks were expected over the southern half of England.
• The closest airport to RAF Cottesmore (OKH) is East Midlands Airport (EMA), which is located 29 miles (47 kilometers) WNW of OKH.
• On 8 September 1943 the United States Army Air Forces took the facilities over, under the designation USAAF Station 489, flying troop transport aircraft.
• RAF Cottesmore (OKH) currently has only 1 runway.
• The 316th Troop Carrier Group began to arrive at Cottesmore on 15 February 1944 when 52 C-47 and C-53 transports began flying in from Borizzo Afld., Sicily.
• The furthest airport from RAF Cottesmore (OKH) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,813 miles (19,011 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• The 316th TCG was part of the 52d Troop Carrier Wing.
• Because of RAF Cottesmore's relatively low elevation of 463 feet, planes can take off or land at RAF Cottesmore 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.