Nonstop flight route between Universal City, Texas, United States and Santa Maria, Portugal:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Randolph Air Force Base Joint Base San Antonio (RND), Universal City, Texas, United States and Santa Maria Airport (SMA), Santa Maria, Portugal would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,153 miles (or 6,683 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 Randolph Air Force Base Joint Base San Antonio and Santa Maria 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 Randolph Air Force Base Joint Base San Antonio and Santa Maria 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 Randolph Air Force Base Joint Base San Antonio (RND):

• In addition to being known as "Randolph Air Force Base Joint Base San Antonio", another name for RND is "Randolph AFB".
• Randolph AFB is named after Captain William Millican Randolph, a native of Austin, who was on the base naming committee at the time of his death in a crash.
• The idea for Randolph began soon after passage in the United States Congress of the Air Corps Act of 1926, which changed the name of the Army Air Service to the Army Air Corps, created two new brigadier general positions and provided a five-year expansion program for the under-strength Air Corps.
• Like many military installations during World War II, Randolph fielded an intercollegiate football team, nicknamed the Randolph Field Ramblers.
• Between October 1931 and March 1935, more than 2,000 candidates reported for pilot training at Randolph, which began a new class every fourth months.
• Randolph AFB is part of Joint Base San Antonio, an amalgamation of the United States Army Fort Sam Houston, the United States Air Force Randolph Air Force Base and Lackland Air Force Base, which were merged on 1 October 2010.
• Today, the 12 FTW provides instructor pilot training and refresher/recurrency training in the T-6A Texan II, T-38C Talon and T-1A Jayhawk.
• The closest airport to Randolph Air Force Base Joint Base San Antonio (RND) is San Antonio International Airport (SAT), which is located only 12 miles (19 kilometers) W of RND.
• The furthest airport from Randolph Air Force Base Joint Base San Antonio (RND) is Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport (RRG), which is located 11,103 miles (17,869 kilometers) away in Rodrigues Island, Mauritius.

Facts about Santa Maria Airport (SMA):

• Because of Santa Maria Airport's relatively low elevation of 308 feet, planes can take off or land at Santa Maria 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.
• For a while, Air France's supersonic Concordes were routed to Santa Maria on refueling layovers between Paris and Caracas.
• The furthest airport from Santa Maria Airport (SMA) is Moruya Airport (MYA), which is nearly antipodal to Santa Maria Airport (meaning Santa Maria Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Moruya Airport), and is located 12,166 miles (19,579 kilometers) away in Moruya, New South Wales, Australia.
• Santa Maria Airport is an airport located 5 km west northwest of the urbanized area of Vila do Porto on the Portuguese island of Santa Maria, in the autonomous region of the Azores.
• Santa Maria Airport handled 93,436 passengers last year.
• Santa Maria Airport (SMA) currently has only 1 runway.
• The closest airport to Santa Maria Airport (SMA) is João Paulo II Airport (PDL), which is located 60 miles (97 kilometers) NNW of SMA.
• In addition to being known as "Santa Maria Airport", another name for SMA is "Aeroporto de Santa Maria".