Nonstop flight route between Wallops Island, Virginia, United States and Beauvais, France:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL), Wallops Island, Virginia, United States and Beauvais–Tillé Airport (BVA), Beauvais, France would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,781 miles (or 6,085 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 Wallops Flight Facility Airport and Beauvais–Tillé 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 Wallops Flight Facility Airport and Beauvais–Tillé 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 Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL):

• The closest airport to Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL) is Accomack County Airport (MFV), which is located 26 miles (42 kilometers) SW of WAL.
• In 1959, NASA acquired the former Naval Air Station Chincoteague, and engineering and administrative activities were moved to this location.
• The WFF Research Airport is located on the Main Base.
• The furthest airport from Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 11,785 miles (18,965 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.
• The first payload launched into orbit from Wallops Island was Explorer IX, atop a Scout rocket, on February 15, 1961.
• In 1998, the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, later joined by Maryland, built the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops on land leased from NASA.
• Since 2001, engineers at NASA Wallops Flight Facility have been developing new range technologies, systems and approaches to improve the cost and responsiveness of launch and flight test activities, within the constraints of available funding and program schedules.
• Because of Wallops Flight Facility Airport's relatively low elevation of 0 feet, planes can take off or land at Wallops Flight Facility 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.

Facts about Beauvais–Tillé Airport (BVA):

• Because of Beauvais–Tillé Airport's relatively low elevation of 359 feet, planes can take off or land at Beauvais–Tillé 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.
• In 1950 the Air Ministry offered to provide the wartime air base to NATO as part of the Cold War development of the alliance.
• With the Luftwaffe switching to night attacks on England, the badly damaged units at Beauvais were replaced by a series of He 111 and Ju 88A units that carried out anti-shipping missions.
• Beauvais–Tillé Airport handled 386,256 passengers last year.
• Beauvais–Tillé Airport (BVA) has 2 runways.
• In response to the interceptor attacks, Beauvais was attacked by USAAF Ninth Air Force Martin B-26 Marauder medium bombers and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bombers with 500-pound general-purpose bombs, unguided rockets and.50 caliber machine gun sweeps when Eighth Air Force heavy bombers were within interception range of the Luftwaffe aircraft assigned to the base.
• In addition to being known as "Beauvais–Tillé Airport", another name for BVA is "Aéroport de Beauvais-TilléAdvanced Landing Ground (ALG) A-61/B-42".
• The closest airport to Beauvais–Tillé Airport (BVA) is Amiens - Glisy Aerodrome (QAM), which is located 31 miles (51 kilometers) NNE of BVA.
• The furthest airport from Beauvais–Tillé Airport (BVA) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is nearly antipodal to Beauvais–Tillé Airport (meaning Beauvais–Tillé Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Chatham Islands), and is located 12,041 miles (19,378 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• In 1956 for Beauvais–Tillé was rebuilt as a civil airport and reopened for commercial use.
• The initial German use of the airport was as a bomber base.
• The airport is equipped to handle medium-sized passenger jets.
• It was liberated by Allied ground forces about 3 September 1944 during the Northern France Campaign.