Nonstop flight route between Mountain View, California, United States and Grootfontein, Namibia:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Moffett Federal Airfield (NUQ), Mountain View, California, United States and Grootfontein Airport (GFY), Grootfontein, Namibia would travel a Great Circle distance of 9,750 miles (or 15,692 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 Moffett Federal Airfield and Grootfontein 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 Moffett Federal Airfield and Grootfontein 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 Moffett Federal Airfield (NUQ):

• Because of Moffett Federal Airfield's relatively low elevation of 32 feet, planes can take off or land at Moffett Federal Airfield 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 Moffett Federal Airfield (NUQ) is Tôlanaro Airport (FTU), which is located 11,365 miles (18,290 kilometers) away in Tôlanaro, Madagascar.
• In April 2011, the exterior panels began coming down, starting at the top.
• Moffett Federal Airfield (NUQ) has 2 runways.
• The airport is near the south end of San Francisco Bay, northwest of San Jose.
• As an aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Navy wanted to use the airship hangars at Moffett for blimp operations along with Pacific Coast.
• The US Navy is evaluating options for remediating the PCBs, lead and asbestos, and NASA is evaluating options for reuse of the hangar.
• The closest airport to Moffett Federal Airfield (NUQ) is Palo Alto Airport of Santa Clara County (PAO), which is located only 5 miles (8 kilometers) NW of NUQ.
• After the crashing of the Macon on 12 February 1935, the Navy wanted to close Moffett Field due to its high cost of operations.
• The airship hangar's interior is so large that fog sometimes forms near the ceiling.
• In 1931, the city of Sunnyvale acquired a 1,000 acres parcel of farmland bordering San Francisco Bay, paid for with nearly $480,000 raised by the citizens of Santa Clara County, then "sold" the parcel for $1 to the US government as a home base for the Navy airship USS Macon.

Facts about Grootfontein Airport (GFY):

• In addition to being known as "Grootfontein Airport", another name for GFY is "Grootfontein Airport".
• Grootfontein Airport (GFY) has 2 runways.
• The closest airport to Grootfontein Airport (GFY) is Halali Airport (HAL), which is located 115 miles (186 kilometers) WNW of GFY.
• The furthest airport from Grootfontein Airport (GFY) is PMRF Barking Sands (BKH), which is nearly antipodal to Grootfontein Airport (meaning Grootfontein Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from PMRF Barking Sands), and is located 12,222 miles (19,669 kilometers) away in Kekaha, Hawaii, United States.
• Because of Grootfontein Airport's high elevation of 4,636 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at GFY. Combined with a high temperature, this could make GFY a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.