Nonstop flight route between Mountain Home, Idaho, United States and Shemya, Alaska, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Mountain Home Air Force Base (MUO), Mountain Home, Idaho, United States and Eareckson Air Station (SYA), Shemya, Alaska, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,180 miles (or 5,117 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 Mountain Home Air Force Base and Eareckson Air Station, 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 Mountain Home Air Force Base and Eareckson Air Station. 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 Mountain Home Air Force Base (MUO):

• Instead of training B-17 crews, Mountain Home airmen began training crews for the B-24 Liberator.
• The closest airport to Mountain Home Air Force Base (MUO) is Boise Airport (BOI), which is located 40 miles (64 kilometers) NNW of MUO.
• In addition to being known as "Mountain Home Air Force Base", another name for MUO is "Mountain Home AFB".
• The air intervention composite wing's rapid transition from concept to reality began in October 1991 when Air Force redesignated the wing as the 366th Wing.
• Mountain Home's first operational USAF unit was the Strategic Air Command 5th Strategic Reconnaissance Group which was reassigned from Clark Field in the Philippines, being assigned on 26 May 1949.
• Beginning in 1968, the 67th also conducted tactical fighter operations with the addition of a squadron of F-4D Phantom IIs.
• The host unit at Mountain Home since 1972 has been the 366th Fighter Wing of the Air Combat Command, nicknamed the "Gunfighters." The base's primary mission is to provide combat airpower and combat support capabilities to respond to and sustain worldwide contingency operations.
• The furthest airport from Mountain Home Air Force Base (MUO) is Tôlanaro Airport (FTU), which is located 10,858 miles (17,474 kilometers) away in Tôlanaro, Madagascar.

Facts about Eareckson Air Station (SYA):

• In addition to being known as "Eareckson Air Station", other names for SYA include "Shemya Air Force Base", "Shemya Army Airfield" and "  ".
• The furthest airport from Eareckson Air Station (SYA) is Cape Town International Airport (CPT), which is located 10,668 miles (17,168 kilometers) away in Cape Town, South Africa.
• Eareckson Air Station (SYA) currently has only 1 runway.
• By the end of 1944, several hundred American airmen had been interned by the Russians after their crippled aircraft landed on Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
• Because of Eareckson Air Station's relatively low elevation of 97 feet, planes can take off or land at Eareckson Air Station 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.
• With the successful completion of the Aleutian Campaign in August 1943, Eleventh Air Force came within striking distance of the Japanese Kurile Islands, the northernmost being 750 miles to the south-southwest of Shemya.
• It also became a Strategic Air Command refueling site for B-52 Stratofortress bombers and KC-135 tankers as part of Operation Chrome Dome.
• The closest airport to Eareckson Air Station (SYA) is Casco Cove Coast Guard Station (ATU), which is located 40 miles (65 kilometers) WNW of SYA.
• The spring of 1944 brought improving weather and the B-24s and PV-1s to fly more missions over the Kuriles.