Nonstop flight route between Rapid City, South Dakota, United States and Kahului, Hawaii, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Ellsworth Air Force Base (RCA), Rapid City, South Dakota, United States and Kahului Airport (OGG), Kahului, Hawaii, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,425 miles (or 5,512 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 Kahului 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 Kahului 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 host unit at Ellsworth is the 28th Bomb Wing assigned to the Air Combat Command's Twelfth Air Force.
• 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.
• When operations resumed in 1947 the base was a new United States Air Force asset.
• In addition to being known as "Ellsworth Air Force Base", another name for RCA is "Ellsworth AFB".
• 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 Titan I's life span was short in western South Dakota.
• 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 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.

Facts about Kahului Airport (OGG):

• The furthest airport from Kahului Airport (OGG) is Maun Airport (MUB), which is nearly antipodal to Kahului Airport (meaning Kahului Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Maun Airport), and is located 12,372 miles (19,911 kilometers) away in Maun, Botswana.
• The NTSB determined the cause of the accident was the airplane's controlled flight into terrain as a result of the decision of the captain to continue the flight under visual flight rules at night into instrument meteorological conditions, which obscured rising mountainous terrain.
• All 20 aboard the aircraft died.
• Kahului Airport handled 5,346,694 passengers last year.
• Kahului Airport (OGG) has 2 runways.
• Because of Kahului Airport's relatively low elevation of 54 feet, planes can take off or land at Kahului 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.
• In early 2005, Governor Linda Lingle released $365 million for construction of an extended ticketing lobby, new baggage claim carousels, a new Alien Species building, a new cargo building, construction of a new apron, construction of an additional 10 jetways to replace the current jetways, and a new six-lane airport access road that would run from the airport, intersecting Haleakala Highway and Hana Highway, and run parallel to Dairy Road where it would merge with a new grade-separated interchange between Puunene Avenue, Dairy Road, and Kuihelani Highway.
• The closest airport to Kahului Airport (OGG) is Kapalua Airport (JHM), which is located only 16 miles (26 kilometers) WNW of OGG.
• Kahului Airport is part of a centralized state structure governing all of the airports and seaports of Hawai'i.
• On October 28, 1989, Aloha Island Air Flight 1712, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft, collided with mountainous terrain near Halawa Valley, Molokai, while en route on a scheduled passenger flight from Kahului Airport to Molokai Airport in Hoolehua.
• Most of the gates were spaced to handle narrow-body aircraft like the Boeing 717 and Boeing 737 used on inter-island flights.