Nonstop flight route between Arcachon, France and Ruislip, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between La Teste-de-Buch Airport (XAC), Arcachon, France and RAF Northolt (NHT), Ruislip, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 482 miles (or 775 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 relatively short distance between La Teste-de-Buch Airport and RAF Northolt, the route shown on this map most likely still appears to be a straight line.

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about La Teste-de-Buch Airport (XAC):

• In addition to being known as "La Teste-de-Buch Airport", another name for XAC is "Aéroport d'Arcachon - La Teste-de-Buch".
• La Teste-de-Buch Airport (XAC) has 2 runways.
• The closest airport to La Teste-de-Buch Airport (XAC) is Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport (BOD), which is located 25 miles (41 kilometers) NE of XAC.
• The furthest airport from La Teste-de-Buch Airport (XAC) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is nearly antipodal to La Teste-de-Buch Airport (meaning La Teste-de-Buch Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Chatham Islands), and is located 12,200 miles (19,634 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• Because of La Teste-de-Buch Airport's relatively low elevation of 49 feet, planes can take off or land at La Teste-de-Buch 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 RAF Northolt (NHT):

• Construction of the new aerodrome, to be named "RFC Military School, Ruislip", began in January 1915.
• The furthest airport from RAF Northolt (NHT) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,871 miles (19,105 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• The closest airport to RAF Northolt (NHT) is London Heathrow Airport (LHR), which is located only 6 miles (9 kilometers) SSW of NHT.
• Starting in 1946 the airfield was used by civil aviation during the construction of nearby Heathrow Airport.
• RAF Northolt is a Royal Air Force station in South Ruislip, 2 nautical miles from Uxbridge in the London Borough of Hillingdon, west London.
• Northolt received its first gate guardian, a Spitfire F.Mk 22, in September 1963.
• Following Louis Blériot's first flight across the English Channel in 1909, the British Army considered the necessity of defending the United Kingdom from a future air attack.
• Thirty Allied airmen including servicemen from Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, New Zealand, Poland and the United Kingdom were killed flying from RAF Northolt during the Battle of Britain, of whom ten were Polish.
• In 1943, the station became the first to fly sorties using Supermarine Spitfire Mk IXs in German airspace in support of bomber operations.
• Since 1 June 1998, station commanders have served as aides-de-camp to Her Majesty the Queen.