Nonstop flight route between Rapid City, South Dakota, United States and Butuan City, Philippines:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Ellsworth Air Force Base (RCA), Rapid City, South Dakota, United States and Butuan-Bancasi Airport (BXU), Butuan City, Philippines would travel a Great Circle distance of 7,680 miles (or 12,359 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 Butuan-Bancasi 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 Butuan-Bancasi 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):

• Ellsworth AFB was established in 1941 as Rapid City Army Air Base.
• 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.
• In addition to being known as "Ellsworth Air Force Base", another name for RCA is "Ellsworth AFB".
• To provide air defense of the base, the United States Army established the Ellsworth AFB Defense Area in 1957 and constructed Nike-Ajax Surface-to-air missile sites for air defense.
• After the Army closed their facilities, the military housing at the Nike Integrated Fire Control sites was transferred to control of Ellsworth, and was used as Air Force military family housing until about 1990.
• When operations resumed in 1947 the base was a new United States Air Force asset.
• Military organizations periodically upgrade manpower and machines from time to time to meet new national security requirements and Ellsworth Air Force Base's organizations were no exception.
• On 1 June 1992, as part of the first major reorganization since the creation of USAF, the Air Force inactivated Strategic Air Command and assigned Ellsworth's organizations ) to the newly activated Air Combat Command.
• 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.

Facts about Butuan-Bancasi Airport (BXU):

• In addition to being known as "Butuan-Bancasi Airport", another name for BXU is "Paliparan ng Bancasi Tugpahanan sa Bancasi".
• Butuan-Bancasi Airport (BXU) currently has only 1 runway.
• The furthest airport from Butuan-Bancasi Airport (BXU) is Orlando Villas-Bôas Regional Airport (MBK), which is nearly antipodal to Butuan-Bancasi Airport (meaning Butuan-Bancasi Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Orlando Villas-Bôas Regional Airport), and is located 12,348 miles (19,872 kilometers) away in Matupá, Mato Grosso, Brazil.
• Butuan-Bancasi Airport handled 308,405 passengers last year.
• The closest airport to Butuan-Bancasi Airport (BXU) is Tandag Airport (TDG), which is located 48 miles (77 kilometers) E of BXU.
• Because of Butuan-Bancasi Airport's relatively low elevation of 141 feet, planes can take off or land at Butuan-Bancasi 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.