Nonstop flight route between Rapid City, South Dakota, United States and Tallinn, Estonia:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Ellsworth Air Force Base (RCA), Rapid City, South Dakota, United States and Tallinn Airport (TLL), Tallinn, Estonia would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,695 miles (or 7,555 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 Tallinn 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 Tallinn 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 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 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.
• On 15 July 1945, the 225th AAFBU was inactivated and Rapid City AAB was placed on standby status as the Army Air Forces began to demobilize.
• The 740th AC&W Squadron began operations in 1955 with AN/MPS-7 search radar, and initially the station functioned as a Ground-Control Intercept and warning station.
• An Army Air-Defense Command Post was established at Ellsworth in 1960 for Nike missile command-and-control functions.
• 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.
• Internationally, the destruction of the Berlin Wall in October 1989 symbolized the imminent demise of the Soviet Union over the next several months.
• In addition to being known as "Ellsworth Air Force Base", another name for RCA is "Ellsworth AFB".

Facts about Tallinn Airport (TLL):

• The name change was discussed at a board meeting on 29 March 2006, and on the opening of the new terminal on 19 September 2008, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip officially announced the renaming would take place in March 2009
• There is a number of vendors in the terminal building, including three restaurants, three coffee shops, a duty-free shop, cigar lounge, book store, travel shop, gift shop etc.
• Tallinn Airport (TLL) currently has only 1 runway.
• The furthest airport from Tallinn Airport (TLL) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,037 miles (17,763 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• In addition to being known as "Tallinn Airport", another name for TLL is "Tallinna lennujaam".
• The new terminal is intended for the service of one million passengers and the space liberated from low-cost airlines would pass into the disposition of Estonian Air and other traditional airlines, such as Lufthansa, SAS, LOT and Finnair.
• The airport has a single asphalt-concrete runway that is 3070 metres long and 45 metres wide, five taxiways and fourteen terminal gates.
• The closest airport to Tallinn Airport (TLL) is Helsinki-Malmi Airport (HEM), which is located 58 miles (94 kilometers) N of TLL.
• Because of Tallinn Airport's relatively low elevation of 131 feet, planes can take off or land at Tallinn 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.