Nonstop flight route between Mbeya, Tanzania and Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Mbeya Airport (MBI), Mbeya, Tanzania and RAF Lakenheath (LKZ), Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,662 miles (or 7,503 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 Mbeya Airport and RAF Lakenheath, 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 Mbeya Airport and RAF Lakenheath. 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 Mbeya Airport (MBI):

• The closest airport to Mbeya Airport (MBI) is Karonga Airport (KGJ), which is located 77 miles (124 kilometers) SSE of MBI.
• Because of Mbeya Airport's high elevation of 5,600 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at MBI. Combined with a high temperature, this could make MBI a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.
• In addition to being known as "Mbeya Airport", another name for MBI is "Uwanja wa Ndege wa Mbeya  (Swahili)".
• Mbeya Airport (MBI) currently has only 1 runway.
• The furthest airport from Mbeya Airport (MBI) is Cassidy International Airport (CXI), which is located 11,553 miles (18,592 kilometers) away in Christmas Island, Kiribati.

Facts about RAF Lakenheath (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.
• In addition to supporting three combat-ready squadrons of F-15E Strike Eagle and F-15C Eagle fighter aircraft, the Liberty Wing houses the 56th Rescue Squadron's HH-60G Combat Search and Rescue helicopters.
• The closest airport to RAF Lakenheath (LKZ) is RAF Mildenhall (MHZ), which is located only 4 miles (7 kilometers) SW of LKZ.
• Control of RAF Lakenheath was allocated to Third Air Force at South Ruislip Air Station, which had command of SAC B-29 operations in England.
• 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.