Nonstop flight route between Mbeya, Tanzania and Wallops Island, Virginia, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Mbeya Airport (MBI), Mbeya, Tanzania and Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL), Wallops Island, Virginia, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 7,626 miles (or 12,272 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 Wallops Flight Facility 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 Mbeya Airport and Wallops Flight Facility Airport. 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):

• In addition to being known as "Mbeya Airport", another name for MBI is "Uwanja wa Ndege wa Mbeya  (Swahili)".
• 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.
• 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.
• Mbeya Airport (MBI) currently has only 1 runway.
• The closest airport to Mbeya Airport (MBI) is Karonga Airport (KGJ), which is located 77 miles (124 kilometers) SSE of MBI.

Facts about Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL):

• The closest airport to Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL) is Accomack County Airport (MFV), which is located 26 miles (42 kilometers) SW of WAL.
• The furthest airport from Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 11,785 miles (18,965 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.
• Because of Wallops Flight Facility Airport's relatively low elevation of 0 feet, planes can take off or land at Wallops Flight Facility 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.
• The Wallops Research Range includes ground-based and mobile systems, and a range control center.
• In 1959, NASA acquired the former Naval Air Station Chincoteague, and engineering and administrative activities were moved to this location.
• LCT2 is an effort to produce a relatively low-cost transceiver to allow launch vehicles to communicate through NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System after they have gone over the horizon from the launch site.
• There have been over 16,000 launches from the rocket testing range at Wallops since its founding in 1945 in the quest for information on the flight characteristics of airplanes, launch vehicles, and spacecraft, and to increase the knowledge of the Earth's upper atmosphere and the environment of outer space.
• In 1998, the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, later joined by Maryland, built the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops on land leased from NASA.