Nonstop flight route between Shemya, Alaska, United States and Bangor, Maine, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Eareckson Air Station (SYA), Shemya, Alaska, United States and Bangor International Airport (BGR), Bangor, Maine, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,739 miles (or 7,626 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 Eareckson Air Station and Bangor 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 Eareckson Air Station and Bangor 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 Eareckson Air Station (SYA):

• Because of Eareckson Air Station's relatively low elevation of 97 feet, planes can take off or land at Eareckson Air Station 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.
• The furthest airport from Eareckson Air Station (SYA) is Cape Town International Airport (CPT), which is located 10,668 miles (17,168 kilometers) away in Cape Town, South Africa.
• Eareckson Air Station (SYA) currently has only 1 runway.
• The aerial photos taken on the raid showed the Japanese were building up forces in the area, transferring aircraft presumably from air bases on Hokkaido.
• The closest airport to Eareckson Air Station (SYA) is Casco Cove Coast Guard Station (ATU), which is located 40 miles (65 kilometers) WNW of SYA.
• Shemya also continued to support the Great Circle Route for MATS and later Military Airlift Command transports between Japan and Elmendorf AFB.
• In addition to being known as "Eareckson Air Station", other names for SYA include "Shemya Air Force Base", "Shemya Army Airfield" and "  ".
• In July 1973, Raytheon won a contract to build a system called COBRA DANE on Shemya.
• By the end of 1944, several hundred American airmen had been interned by the Russians after their crippled aircraft landed on Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
• With the successful completion of the Aleutian Campaign in August 1943, Eleventh Air Force came within striking distance of the Japanese Kurile Islands, the northernmost being 750 miles to the south-southwest of Shemya.

Facts about Bangor International Airport (BGR):

• Pilots often use Bangor to prepare aggressive fuel estimates for transatlantic flights to North American destinations, since they can divert to Bangor if the fuel load proves insufficient.
• The furthest airport from Bangor International Airport (BGR) is Albany Airport (ALH), which is located 11,670 miles (18,782 kilometers) away in Albany, Western Australia, Australia.
• Regular air passenger service to Portland and Boston was begun in 1931 by Boston-Maine Airways, owned by the Boston and Maine and Bangor and Aroostook railroads and under contract to Pan American, which was interested in the airport as a stop on its planned intercontinental air route between the U.S.
• In the 1950s and 1960s, Bangor was a destination for Northeast Airlines before its merger into Delta.
• In April 2008, the airport received a US$2.9 million grant from the Federal Aviation Administration to upgrade the terminal building and aviation equipment.
• Because of Bangor International Airport's relatively low elevation of 192 feet, planes can take off or land at Bangor 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.
• Bangor also had mainline scheduled jets on Northeast Airlines, and subsequently Delta in the 1970s with flights to PWM and BOS.
• Bangor International Airport (BGR) currently has only 1 runway.
• The closest airport to Bangor International Airport (BGR) is Old Town Municipal Airport (OLD), which is located only 13 miles (20 kilometers) NE of BGR.
• In 1977, Erwin Kreuz, a 50-year-old West German brewery worker on his way to San Francisco, stepped off a refueling charter flight in the mistaken belief that he had reached his destination.
• In 1968, Dow AFB was closed as an active duty Air Force installation.