Nonstop flight route between Lydd, England, United Kingdom and Georgetown, Ascension Island, Saint Helena:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Lydd International Airport (LYX), Lydd, England, United Kingdom and RAF Ascension (ASI), Georgetown, Ascension Island, Saint Helena would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,173 miles (or 6,716 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 Lydd International Airport and RAF Ascension, 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 Lydd International Airport and RAF Ascension. 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 Lydd International Airport (LYX):

• Lydd Airport, opened in 1956, was the first airport to be built in the UK following the end of the Second World War.
• As of August 2011 Bin Air are operating nightly chartered freight services to Stuttgart using a Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner.
• The closest airport to Lydd International Airport (LYX) is Lympne Airport (LYM), which is located only 9 miles (15 kilometers) NNE of LYX.
• Lydd International Airport handled 2,696 passengers last year.
• The furthest airport from Lydd International Airport (LYX) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,928 miles (19,197 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• Lydd Air is based at the airport, offering regular flights to Le Touquet in northern France.
• Lydd International Airport (LYX) currently has only 1 runway.
• Because of Lydd International Airport's relatively low elevation of 13 feet, planes can take off or land at Lydd International 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.
• Lydd Airport is located 1.2 NM northeast of the town of Lydd and 12 NM south of Ashford in the District of Shepway within Kent, England.
• During the 1980s the airport was bought by Hards Travel from Solihull, who used the airport as its base for its holiday operations to Spain, Italy and Austria, using Dart Herald and Viscount aircraft flying to Beauvais in France, where customers were transferred to coaches for the remainder of the journey.
• Lydd Airport has a CAA Ordinary Licence that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee.

Facts about RAF Ascension (ASI):

• The RAF presence on Ascension is backed up by United States Air Force personnel, who contribute a similar number of service personnel to ensure the effective running of the station, under the command of Captain Eduard Rodriguez, who is responsible to the RAF Station Commander.
• The furthest airport from RAF Ascension (ASI) is Ujae Airport (UJE), which is nearly antipodal to RAF Ascension (meaning RAF Ascension is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Ujae Airport), and is located 12,370 miles (19,907 kilometers) away in Ujae Atoll, Marshall Islands.
• In addition to being known as "RAF Ascension", another name for ASI is "Wideawake Airbase/Field".
• The closest airport to RAF Ascension (ASI) is Sasstown Airport (SAZ), which is located 965 miles (1,553 kilometers) NNE of ASI.
• The NASA Tracking Station at Devil's Ashpit and the Cable & Wireless Earth Station at Donkey Plain were built in the "mid-sixties" for space operations and communications, including the latter's use for transmitting "microwave borne data via the Early Bird Satellite back to the NASA facility at Andover, Maine.