Nonstop flight route between Xiangfan, Hubei, China and Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Xiangyang Liuji Airport (XFN), Xiangfan, Hubei, China and RAF Lakenheath (LKZ), Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,298 miles (or 8,526 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 Xiangyang Liuji Airport and RAF Lakenheath, 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 Xiangyang Liuji Airport and RAF Lakenheath. 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 Xiangyang Liuji Airport (XFN):

• The closest airport to Xiangyang Liuji Airport (XFN) is Nanyang Jiangying Airport (NNY), which is located 60 miles (97 kilometers) NNE of XFN.
• Xiangyang Liuji Airport (XFN) currently has only 1 runway.
• The furthest airport from Xiangyang Liuji Airport (XFN) is Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Airport (UAQ), which is nearly antipodal to Xiangyang Liuji Airport (meaning Xiangyang Liuji Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Airport), and is located 12,381 miles (19,926 kilometers) away in San Juan Province, Argentina.
• In addition to being known as "Xiangyang Liuji Airport", other names for XFN include "襄阳刘集机场" and "Xiāngyáng Liújí Jīchǎng".

Facts about RAF Lakenheath (LKZ):

• The furthest airport from RAF Lakenheath (LKZ) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,827 miles (19,034 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• In 1940, the Air Ministry selected Lakenheath as an alternative for RAF Mildenhall and used it as a decoy airfield.
• The closest airport to RAF Lakenheath (LKZ) is RAF Mildenhall (MHZ), which is located only 4 miles (7 kilometers) SW of LKZ.
• In response to the threat by the Soviet Union, by the 1948 Berlin blockade, President Truman decided to realign USAFE into a permanent combat-capable force.
• In early 1943, three T-2 hangars were erected on the north side of the airfield for glider storage, 40 Horsa Gliders being dispersed at Lakenheath during that year.
• The increasing tension of the Cold War lead to a re-evaluation of these deployments, and by 1953 SAC bombers began to move its heavy bomb groups further west, behind RAF fighter forces, to RAF Brize Norton, RAF Greenham Common, RAF Upper Heyford and RAF Fairford, while its shorter-range B-47 were sent to East Anglia.