Nonstop flight route between Knock, Ireland and Edwards, California, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Ireland West Airport Knock (NOC), Knock, Ireland and Edwards Air Force Base (EDW), Edwards, California, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,993 miles (or 8,035 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 Ireland West Airport Knock and Edwards 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 Ireland West Airport Knock and Edwards 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 Ireland West Airport Knock (NOC):

• Ireland West Airport Knock handled 665,000 passengers last year.
• Ireland West Airport Knock (NOC) currently has only 1 runway.
• In recent years Ryanair has grown operations and it is the largest airline to serve the airport with 14 scheduled routes.
• On 31 October 2013, in response to the scrapping of the Irish travel tax, Ryanair unveiled 3 new routes from Knock to Glasgow-Prestwick, Kaunas and Eindhoven.
• In addition to being known as "Ireland West Airport Knock", other names for NOC include "Horan International Airport" and "Aerfort Iarthar Éireann".
• The closest airport to Ireland West Airport Knock (NOC) is Sligo Airport (SXL), which is located 27 miles (44 kilometers) NNE of NOC.
• Because of Ireland West Airport Knock's relatively low elevation of 665 feet, planes can take off or land at Ireland West Airport Knock 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 furthest airport from Ireland West Airport Knock (NOC) is Ryan's Creek Aerodrome (SZS), which is located 11,934 miles (19,206 kilometers) away in Stewart Island, New Zealand.
• By 1988, over 100,000 passengers had passed through.

Facts about Edwards Air Force Base (EDW):

• On the afternoon of 7 December 1941, the 41st Bombardment Group and the 6th Reconnaissance Squadron moved to Muroc from Davis-Monthan Army Airfield, Arizona with a collection of B-18 Bolos, an A-29 Hudson and B-25 Mitchells.
• The closest airport to Edwards Air Force Base (EDW) is Mojave Air and Space Port (MHV), which is located only 19 miles (30 kilometers) NW of EDW.
• The North Base is located at the north-west corner of Rogers Lake and is the site of the Air Force's most secret test programs at Edwards.
• Its curriculum focused on the traditional field of performance testing and the relatively new field of stability and control, which had suddenly assumed critical importance with the dramatic increases in speed offered by the new turbojets.
• The furthest airport from Edwards Air Force Base (EDW) is Pierrefonds Airport (ZSE), which is located 11,414 miles (18,369 kilometers) away in Saint-Pierre, Réunion.
• With the arrival of the Bell Aircraft P-59 Airacomet jet fighter, the Mojave Desert station was chosen as a secluded site for testing this super-secret airplane.
• The P-59s were tested at Muroc from October 1942 through February 1944 without a single accident and, though the aircraft did not prove to be combat worthy, the successful conduct of its test program, combined with the success of the Lockheed XP-80 program which followed it in early 1944, sealed the future destiny of the remote high desert installation.