Nonstop flight route between Beijing, China and Rapid City, South Dakota, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Beijing Nanyuan Airport (NAY), Beijing, China and Ellsworth Air Force Base (RCA), Rapid City, South Dakota, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 6,139 miles (or 9,880 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 Beijing Nanyuan Airport and Ellsworth Air Force Base, 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 Beijing Nanyuan Airport and Ellsworth Air Force Base. 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 Beijing Nanyuan Airport (NAY):

• Beijing Nanyuan Airport (NAY) currently has only 1 runway.
• In addition to being known as "Beijing Nanyuan Airport", other names for NAY include "北京南苑机场" and "Běijīng Nányuàn Jīchǎng".
• The furthest airport from Beijing Nanyuan Airport (NAY) is Gobernador Edgardo Castello Airport (VDM), which is nearly antipodal to Beijing Nanyuan Airport (meaning Beijing Nanyuan Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Gobernador Edgardo Castello Airport), and is located 12,355 miles (19,884 kilometers) away in Viedma, Argentina.
• A limo Beijing Airport Bus service is available to and from the Air China Building at Xidan in Beijing's city centre.
• Nanyuan Airport opened a new terminal in September 2013 with a designed passenger handling capacity of 6 million people.
• The closest airport to Beijing Nanyuan Airport (NAY) is Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK), which is located 23 miles (37 kilometers) NNE of NAY.

Facts about Ellsworth Air Force Base (RCA):

• The airfield was again temporarily shut down from September 1946 – March 1947 and underwent a major construction program to upgrade the temporary wartime facilities to that of a permanent base.
• Ellsworth AFB is 10 miles east of Rapid City, S.D.
• The furthest airport from Ellsworth Air Force Base (RCA) is Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport (RRG), which is located 10,579 miles (17,026 kilometers) away in Rodrigues Island, Mauritius.
• In addition to being known as "Ellsworth Air Force Base", another name for RCA is "Ellsworth AFB".
• In October 1960, Ellsworth entered the "Space Age," with the activation of the 850th Strategic Missile Squadron, initially assigned to the 28 BMW.
• The closest airport to Ellsworth Air Force Base (RCA) is Rapid City Regional Airport (RAP), which is located only 7 miles (11 kilometers) S of RCA.
• An Army Air-Defense Command Post was established at Ellsworth in 1960 for Nike missile command-and-control functions.
• The base experienced one of its worst peacetime tragedies in March 1953 when an RB-36 and its entire crew of 23 crashed in Newfoundland while returning from a routine exercise in Europe.