Nonstop flight route between Rapid City, South Dakota, United States and Stavanger, Norway:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Ellsworth Air Force Base (RCA), Rapid City, South Dakota, United States and Stavanger-Sola International Airport (SVG), Stavanger, Norway would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,249 miles (or 6,838 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 Stavanger-Sola International 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 Stavanger-Sola International 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):

• 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.
• In addition to being known as "Ellsworth Air Force Base", another name for RCA is "Ellsworth AFB".
• 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.
• 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 1986, the base and the 28 BMW made extensive preparations to phase out the aging B-52 fleet and become the second home for the advanced B-1B Lancer.
• Rapid City AAF was assigned to the 17th Bombardment Training Wing, II Bomber Command.
• 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.
• When operations resumed in 1947 the base was a new United States Air Force asset.

Facts about Stavanger-Sola International Airport (SVG):

• The airport had 82,118 air movements and 4,119,348 passengers in 2011.
• Stavanger-Sola International Airport (SVG) has 2 runways.
• Sola has quite a number of technical facilities, and has the largest aviation technical environment in Norway, including the largest helicopter maintenance facilites in Northern-Europe, Braathens had its technical main base at Sola, as does Norwegian Air Shutte, CHC Helikopter Service, Heli-One Norway, Bristow Norway, Norsk Helikopterservice, Norcopter, Pratt & Whitney Norway Engine Centre and the air force's helicopter main technical base.
• In addition to being known as "Stavanger-Sola International Airport", another name for SVG is "Stavanger lufthavn, Sola".
• The closest airport to Stavanger-Sola International Airport (SVG) is Haugesund Airport, Karmøy (HAU), which is located 36 miles (57 kilometers) NNW of SVG.
• Because of Stavanger-Sola International Airport's relatively low elevation of 29 feet, planes can take off or land at Stavanger-Sola International 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.
• Det Norske Luftfartsselskap started flying to Sola after the war, as did Braathens SAFE in 1946 on its routes to Europe and the Far East with the Douglas DC-3 aircraft.
• Air France has also operated routes to Stavanger, with Boeing 737s, to its hub at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport.
• The furthest airport from Stavanger-Sola International Airport (SVG) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,392 miles (18,334 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• Stavanger-Sola International Airport handled 4,119,348 passengers last year.