Nonstop flight route between Glendale, Arizona, United States and Mmabatho, South Africa:
Departure Airport:

Arrival Airport:

Distance from LUF to MBD:
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- About this route
- LUF Airport Information
- MBD Airport Information
- Facts about LUF
- Facts about MBD
- Map of Nearest Airports to LUF
- List of Nearest Airports to LUF
- Map of Furthest Airports from LUF
- List of Furthest Airports from LUF
- Map of Nearest Airports to MBD
- List of Nearest Airports to MBD
- Map of Furthest Airports from MBD
- List of Furthest Airports from MBD
About this route:
A direct, nonstop flight between Luke Air Force BaseLuke Field (LUF), Glendale, Arizona, United States and Mafikeng Airport (MBD), Mmabatho, South Africa would travel a Great Circle distance of 9,873 miles (or 15,889 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 Luke Air Force BaseLuke Field and Mafikeng 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 Luke Air Force BaseLuke Field and Mafikeng Airport. You'll see that it will travel the same route of the red line on this map!
Departure Airport Information:
IATA / ICAO Codes: | LUF / KLUF |
Airport Names: |
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Location: | Glendale, Arizona, United States |
GPS Coordinates: | 33°32'5"N by 112°22'59"W |
View all routes: | Routes from LUF |
More Information: | LUF Maps & Info |
Arrival Airport Information:
IATA / ICAO Codes: | MBD / FAMM |
Airport Names: |
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Location: | Mmabatho, South Africa |
GPS Coordinates: | 25°48'27"S by 25°32'39"E |
Area Served: | Mafikeng, South Africa |
Operator/Owner: | Government |
Airport Type: | Public |
Elevation: | 4181 feet (1,274 meters) |
# of Runways: | 1 |
View all routes: | Routes from MBD |
More Information: | MBD Maps & Info |
Facts about Luke Air Force BaseLuke Field (LUF):
- Ground school, or classroom training for the advanced flying course, varied from about 100 to 130 hours and was intermingled with flight time in the aircraft.
- In addition to being known as "Luke Air Force BaseLuke Field", another name for LUF is "Luke AFB".
- The furthest airport from Luke Air Force BaseLuke Field (LUF) is Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport (RRG), which is located 11,450 miles (18,426 kilometers) away in Rodrigues Island, Mauritius.
- The closest airport to Luke Air Force BaseLuke Field (LUF) is Phoenix Goodyear Airport (GYR), which is located only 7 miles (12 kilometers) S of LUF.
- On 25 May 1953 the 3600th Air Demonstration Team was officially organized and established at Luke, still officially carrying this designation, now known as the United States Air Force Thunderbirds.
- Luke Air Force Base is an active-duty F-16 Fighting Falcon training base with 170 F-16s assigned.
- By 7 February 1944, pilots at Luke had achieved a million hours of flying time.
Facts about Mafikeng Airport (MBD):
- Mafikeng Airport (MBD) currently has only 1 runway.
- Because of Mafikeng Airport's high elevation of 4,181 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at MBD. Combined with a high temperature, this could make MBD a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.
- In addition to being known as "Mafikeng Airport", another name for MBD is "Mmabatho Airport".
- The furthest airport from Mafikeng Airport (MBD) is Kalaupapa Airport (LUP), which is nearly antipodal to Mafikeng Airport (meaning Mafikeng Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Kalaupapa Airport), and is located 12,081 miles (19,443 kilometers) away in Kalaupapa, Hawaii, United States.
- The closest airport to Mafikeng Airport (MBD) is Lobatse Airport (LOQ), which is located 43 miles (70 kilometers) NNE of MBD.