Nonstop flight route between Rapid City, South Dakota, United States and Albury, New South Wales, Australia:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Ellsworth Air Force Base (RCA), Rapid City, South Dakota, United States and Albury Airport (ABX), Albury, New South Wales, Australia would travel a Great Circle distance of 8,806 miles (or 14,172 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 Ellsworth Air Force Base and Albury 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 Ellsworth Air Force Base and Albury 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 Ellsworth Air Force Base (RCA):

• 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.
• On 2 January 1942, the U.S.
• The 12th Air Division moved to Ellsworth on 15 July 1988.
• An Army Air-Defense Command Post was established at Ellsworth in 1960 for Nike missile command-and-control functions.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• In addition to being known as "Ellsworth Air Force Base", another name for RCA is "Ellsworth AFB".
• In March 1944, heavy bomber operational training ended and the 225th Army Air Force Base Unit began training of replacement personnel for deployed heavy bombardment units in the overseas combat theaters.

Facts about Albury Airport (ABX):

• Because of Albury Airport's relatively low elevation of 539 feet, planes can take off or land at Albury Airport 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 closest airport to Albury Airport (ABX) is Corowa Airport (CWW), which is located 34 miles (55 kilometers) W of ABX.
• The airport is serviced twice daily by Virgin Australia who utilise 68-seat ATR-72s to Sydney.
• The furthest airport from Albury Airport (ABX) is Flores Airport (FLW), which is nearly antipodal to Albury Airport (meaning Albury Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Flores Airport), and is located 12,180 miles (19,602 kilometers) away in Flores Island, Azores, Portugal.
• Albury Airport (ABX) currently has only 1 runway.
• Albury Airport handled 284,535 passengers last year.
• Virgin Australia launched services to Albury on 5 February 2008 with double-daily Embraer 170 services-one of its first new ports served by the aircraft.