Nonstop flight route between San José, Costa Rica and Edwards, California, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) (SJO), San José, Costa Rica and Edwards Air Force Base (EDW), Edwards, California, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 2,730 miles (or 4,394 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 Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) and Edwards Air Force Base, 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 Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) and Edwards Air Force Base. 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 Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) (SJO):

• Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) handled 4,257,606 passengers last year.
• Licensed taxis are available in the airport and will generally accept both colones and U.S.
• The airport's main runway allows for operations of large, widebody aircraft.
• Aircraft at the terminal
• No major changes were made to the terminal until November 1997 when the government issued a decree requesting participation of private companies to manage the operations of the airport.
• The closest airport to Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) (SJO) is Tobías Bolaños International Airport (SYQ), which is located only 5 miles (9 kilometers) ESE of SJO.
• Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) (SJO) currently has only 1 runway.
• The furthest airport from Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) (SJO) is Cocos (Keeling) Island Airport (CCK), which is nearly antipodal to Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) (meaning Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO) is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Cocos (Keeling) Island Airport), and is located 12,270 miles (19,746 kilometers) away in Cocos Islands, Australia.
• In addition to being known as "Juan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)", another name for SJO is "Aeropuerto Internacional Juan Santamaría".
• The airport is hub of Sansa Airlines, and focus city airport for Copa Airlines and Avianca.

Facts about Edwards Air Force Base (EDW):

• Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force installation in southern California, located approximately 22 miles northeast of Lancaster.
• With the arrival of the Bell Aircraft P-59 Airacomet jet fighter, the Mojave Desert station was chosen as a secluded site for testing this super-secret airplane.
• The closest airport to Edwards Air Force Base (EDW) is Mojave Air and Space Port (MHV), which is located only 19 miles (30 kilometers) NW of EDW.
• Notable occurrences at Edwards include Chuck Yeager's flight that broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1, test flights of the North American X-15, the first landings of the Space Shuttle, and the 1986 around-the-world flight of the Rutan Voyager.
• The North Base is located at the north-west corner of Rogers Lake and is the site of the Air Force's most secret test programs at Edwards.
• The base is next to Rogers Dry Lake, an endorheic desert salt pan whose hard dry lake surface provides a natural extension to Edwards' runways.
• There are a vast array of organizations at Edwards that do not fall under the 412th Test Wing.
• The success of these programs attracted a new type of research activity to the base in late 1946.
• The furthest airport from Edwards Air Force Base (EDW) is Pierrefonds Airport (ZSE), which is located 11,414 miles (18,369 kilometers) away in Saint-Pierre, Réunion.
• The P-59s were tested at Muroc from October 1942 through February 1944 without a single accident and, though the aircraft did not prove to be combat worthy, the successful conduct of its test program, combined with the success of the Lockheed XP-80 program which followed it in early 1944, sealed the future destiny of the remote high desert installation.