Nonstop flight route between Rapid City, South Dakota, United States and Dublin, Ireland:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Ellsworth Air Force Base (RCA), Rapid City, South Dakota, United States and Dublin Airport (DUB), Dublin, Ireland would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,106 miles (or 6,608 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 Dublin 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 Dublin 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 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.
• 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.
• In addition to being known as "Ellsworth Air Force Base", another name for RCA is "Ellsworth AFB".
• In October 1960, Ellsworth entered the "Space Age," with the activation of the 850th Strategic Missile Squadron, initially assigned to the 28 BMW.
• Ellsworth's population of approximately 8,000 includes military members, family members and civilian employees.
• 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.
• Air Defense Command deactivated the Ellsworth radar site on 15 August 1962 and the 740th was discontinued.

Facts about Dublin Airport (DUB):

• The furthest airport from Dublin Airport (DUB) is Ryan's Creek Aerodrome (SZS), which is located 11,922 miles (19,187 kilometers) away in Stewart Island, New Zealand.
• Dublin Airport (DUB) has 2 runways.
• Because of Dublin Airport's relatively low elevation of 242 feet, planes can take off or land at Dublin 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.
• During the 1980s, major competition, especially on the Dublin–London routes, resulted in passenger numbers swelling to 5.1 million in 1989.
• The current Terminal 1 building originally opened in 1972, and was initially designed to handle five million passengers per year.
• The airport saw significant declines in traffic in 2009 and 2010, although since 2011 the airport has seen an uptick in traffic.
• Dublin Airport handled 20,166,783 passengers last year.
• The closest airport to Dublin Airport (DUB) is Kilkenny Airport (KKY), which is located 68 miles (110 kilometers) SW of DUB.
• On 24 October 2012, American Airlines announced a new year-round service to New York-JFK beginning 13 June 2013.
• In 1983 Aer Lingus opened its 'Aer Lingus Commuter' division which took delivery of Shorts, Saab AB, and Fokker turboprop aircraft to open regular daily domestic services to and from Ireland's smaller regional airports for the first time, as well as to serve existing routes to smaller regional airports in the United Kingdom.
• In addition to being known as "Dublin Airport", another name for DUB is "Aerfort Bhaile Átha Cliath".