Nonstop flight route between Le Puy-en-Velay / Loudes, Haute-Loire, France and Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Le Puy - Loudes Airport (LPY), Le Puy-en-Velay / Loudes, Haute-Loire, France and Grand Forks Air Force Base (RDR), Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,440 miles (or 7,145 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 Le Puy - Loudes Airport and Grand Forks Air Force Base, 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 Le Puy - Loudes Airport and Grand Forks Air Force Base. 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 Le Puy - Loudes Airport (LPY):

• The closest airport to Le Puy - Loudes Airport (LPY) is Saint-Étienne–Bouthéon Airport (EBU), which is located 41 miles (66 kilometers) NE of LPY.
• Le Puy - Loudes Airport (LPY) has 2 runways.
• The furthest airport from Le Puy - Loudes Airport (LPY) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is nearly antipodal to Le Puy - Loudes Airport (meaning Le Puy - Loudes Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Chatham Islands), and is located 12,348 miles (19,873 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• In addition to being known as "Le Puy - Loudes Airport", another name for LPY is "Aéroport de Le Puy-en-Velay - Loudes".

Facts about Grand Forks Air Force Base (RDR):

• On 3 November 1967, the Department of Defense revealed that GFAFB was one of 10 initial locations to host a Sentinel Anti-Ballistic Missile site.
• On 1 September 1958, the Strategic Air Command established the 4133d Strategic Wing at Grand Forks as part of its plan to disperse its B-52 heavy bombers over a larger number of bases, thus making it more difficult for the Soviet Union to knock out the entire fleet with a surprise first strike.
• In October 1977, the PAR came under operational control of the USAF, which operated it thereafter as part of its early warning system.
• The DC-11 SAGE blockhouse was later the headquarters of the SAC 321st Strategic Missile Wing.
• Due to the continuance of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, GFAFB was originally an Air Defense Command fighter-interceptor air base.
• The closest airport to Grand Forks Air Force Base (RDR) is Grand Forks International Airport (GFK), which is located only 10 miles (17 kilometers) E of RDR.
• The furthest airport from Grand Forks Air Force Base (RDR) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 10,504 miles (16,904 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.
• In addition to being known as "Grand Forks Air Force Base", another name for RDR is "Grand Forks AFB".
• In March 1995, the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission selected the 321st Strategic Missile Wing for inactivation.
• The 4133d SW was redesignated as the 319th Bombardment Wing on 1 February 1963 in a name-only redesigation and was assigned to SAC's Second Air Force, 810th Strategic Aerospace Division.