Nonstop flight route between Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States and San Bernardino, California, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Pope Field (POB), Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States and Norton Air Force Base (SBD), San Bernardino, California, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 2,161 miles (or 3,477 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 relatively short distance between Pope Field and Norton Air Force Base, the route shown on this map most likely still appears to be a straight line.

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about Pope Field (POB):

• The closest airport to Pope Field (POB) is Simmons Army Airfield (FBG), which is located only 5 miles (8 kilometers) ESE of POB.
• The furthest airport from Pope Field (POB) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 11,630 miles (18,716 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.
• On September 21, 1954, Ninth AF turned Pope over to the 464th Troop Carrier Wing which transferred from Lawson AFB, Georgia.
• Lessons learned in the Gulf War in 1990-1991 led senior defense planners to conclude that the structure of the military establishment created numerous command and control problems.
• The drop zones, low-level routes, and dirt landing zones at Fort Bragg became familiar to many men bound for Southeast Asia.
• The 464th provided airlift of troops and cargo, participated in joint airborne training with Army forces, and took part in tactical exercises in the United States and overseas.
• The USAF 440th Airlift Wing is a United States Air Force Reserve unit performs airfield operations to include airfield management, weather forecasting, airfield tower control, airfield navigation and landing systems’ maintenance.
• The 317th TAW flew the C-130E aircraft.
• The 1930s saw the first major expansion of the facilities at Pope.
• The 464th received the Mackay Trophy for the dramatic RED DRAGON/DRAGON ROUGE and BLACK DRAGON/DRAGON NOIR hostage rescue missions in the Congo in 1964.

Facts about Norton Air Force Base (SBD):

• Recently, private development on the former base has helped turn the basically unused land into jobs and revenue for the city of San Bernardino as several companies have opened distribution centers on the property.
• Norton was placed on the Department of Defense's base closure list in 1989.
• In addition to being known as "Norton Air Force Base", another name for SBD is "Norton AFB".
• The closest airport to Norton Air Force Base (SBD) is San Bernardino International Airport (SBT), which is located only 0 mile (0 kilometer) S of SBD.
• The furthest airport from Norton Air Force Base (SBD) is Pierrefonds Airport (ZSE), which is located 11,447 miles (18,423 kilometers) away in Saint-Pierre, Réunion.
• On 1 March 1942, the airport was renamed San Bernardino Army Air Field and the San Bernardino Air Depot was established there.
• A change of mission in 1966 from Air Force Logistics Command to Military Airlift Command meant that Norton became one of six Military Airlift Command strategic-airlift bases, supporting US Army and Marine Corps' airlift requirements among other functions.
• Discrete C-130 Hercules modification tests were conducted out of Area II of the base in the late 1960s, with the 1198th Operational Evaluation and Training Squadron operating four highly classified C-130E special operations testbeds modified at Lockheed Air Services, at near-by Ontario Airport under projects Thin Slice and Heavy Chain.