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

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Lakenheath (LKZ), Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom and Plymouth City Airport (PLH), Plymouth, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 243 miles (or 391 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 Plymouth City Airport, 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):

• In April 1947, RAF Bomber Command returned to Lakenheath and had the runways repaired, resurfaced, and readied for operations by May 1948.
• On 27 November 1948, operational control of RAF Lakenheath was transferred from the Royal Air Force to USAFE.
• The closest airport to RAF Lakenheath (LKZ) is RAF Mildenhall (MHZ), which is located only 4 miles (7 kilometers) SW of LKZ.
• 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.
• The reason for the departure of the two bomber squadrons was Lakenheath's selection for upgrading to a Very Heavy Bomber airfield.
• 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.

Facts about Plymouth City Airport (PLH):

• Plymouth City Airport (PLH) currently has only 1 runway.
• Further support for the continued use of the airport came in February 2008 when Air Southwest and the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce & Industry announced the results of an air travel survey aimed at over 200 businesses in Plymouth.
• The closest airport to Plymouth City Airport (PLH) is Exeter International Airport (EXT), which is located 37 miles (60 kilometers) NE of PLH.
• Air Southwest had its management head office at the airport, but announced that 12 jobs would be lost and its Plymouth office would close, moving instead to Humberside Airport, which is the main operations base for Eastern Airways.
• The furthest airport from Plymouth City Airport (PLH) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is nearly antipodal to Plymouth City Airport (meaning Plymouth City Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Dunedin International Airport), and is located 12,030 miles (19,361 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• Because of Plymouth City Airport's relatively low elevation of 476 feet, planes can take off or land at Plymouth City 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.
• Plymouth City Airport handled 157,933 passengers last year.
• The airport closed and ceased all operations on 23 December 2011.