Nonstop flight route between Rapid City, South Dakota, United States and Tegel / Berlin, Germany:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Ellsworth Air Force Base (RCA), Rapid City, South Dakota, United States and Berlin Tegel Airport (TXL), Tegel / Berlin, Germany would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,763 miles (or 7,666 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 Berlin Tegel 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 Berlin Tegel 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 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 mission of the 28th Bomb Wing is to deliver decisive combat power for global response.
• In addition to being known as "Ellsworth Air Force Base", another name for RCA is "Ellsworth AFB".
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• An Army Air-Defense Command Post was established at Ellsworth in 1960 for Nike missile command-and-control functions.
• The installation changed names a few more times during its early years.

Facts about Berlin Tegel Airport (TXL):

• Following the cessation of direct Tegel–New York City scheduled services, Pan Am continued to operate affinity group/Advance Booking Charter flights from Tegel to the US on an ad hoc basis.
• On 1 April 1973, Air France re-introduced a daily non-stop Orly–Tegel rotation to complement the daily service via Cologne.
• Air France was the first airline to commence regular commercial operations at Tegel on 2 January 1960.
• The closest airport to Berlin Tegel Airport (TXL) is Berlin Tempelhof Airport (THF), which is located only 8 miles (12 kilometers) SE of TXL.
• British Dakota and Hastings aircraft carrying essential goods and raw materials began using Tegel on a regular basis from 17 November 1948.
• Berlin Tegel Airport (TXL) has 2 runways.
• The furthest airport from Berlin Tegel Airport (TXL) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,685 miles (18,805 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• In addition to being known as "Berlin Tegel Airport", another name for TXL is "Flughafen Berlin-Tegel".
• Berlin Tegel Airport handled 19,591,849 passengers last year.
• Pan Am began introducing widebodied aircraft on its Berlin routes in the mid-1980s.
• On that day, Air France, which had served Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Nuremberg and its main base at Paris Le Bourget/Orly during the previous decade from Tempelhof with Douglas DC-4, Sud-Est Languedoc and Lockheed Constellation/Super Constellation piston equipment, shifted its entire Berlin operation to Tegel because Tempelhof's runways were too short to permit the introduction of the Sud-Aviation Caravelle, the French flag carrier's new short-haul jet, with a viable payload.
• Because of Berlin Tegel Airport's relatively low elevation of 122 feet, planes can take off or land at Berlin Tegel 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.