Nonstop flight route between Ruislip, England, United Kingdom and Guangyuan, Sichuan, China:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Northolt (NHT), Ruislip, England, United Kingdom and Guangyuan Airport (GYS), Guangyuan, Sichuan, China would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,121 miles (or 8,241 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 RAF Northolt and Guangyuan 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 RAF Northolt and Guangyuan 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 RAF Northolt (NHT):

• The closest airport to RAF Northolt (NHT) is London Heathrow Airport (LHR), which is located only 6 miles (9 kilometers) SSW of NHT.
• Squadrons based at RAF Northolt during the battle shot down a total of 148 Luftwaffe aircraft and damaged 52.
• An additional memorial to British, Polish, Australian and New Zealand aircrew killed during the Battle of Britain was unveiled in September 2010.
• The furthest airport from RAF Northolt (NHT) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,871 miles (19,105 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• Starting in 1946 the airfield was used by civil aviation during the construction of nearby Heathrow Airport.
• Attention was high again in 2001 when Ronnie Biggs, the seriously ill, fugitive Great Train Robber, was flown from Brazil to the airfield to be arrested by waiting police officers.
• Civil flights ceased when the central area at Heathrow opened in 1954 with Northolt reverting to sole military use in May that year.
• During the construction of Heathrow Airport, Northolt was used for commercial civil flights, becoming the busiest airport in Europe for a time and a major base for British European Airways.

Facts about Guangyuan Airport (GYS):

• Because of Guangyuan Airport's high elevation of 14,472 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at GYS. Combined with a high temperature, this could make GYS a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.
• In addition to being known as "Guangyuan Airport", other names for GYS include "广元机场" and "Guǎngyuán Jīchǎng".
• The furthest airport from Guangyuan Airport (GYS) is Viña del Mar Airport (KNA), which is nearly antipodal to Guangyuan Airport (meaning Guangyuan Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Viña del Mar Airport), and is located 12,268 miles (19,744 kilometers) away in Viña del Mar, Chile.
• The closest airport to Guangyuan Airport (GYS) is Mianyang Nanjiao Airport (MIG), which is located 87 miles (140 kilometers) SW of GYS.