Nonstop flight route between Tonopah, Nevada, United States and Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Tonopah Test Range Airport (XSD), Tonopah, Nevada, United States and RAF Lakenheath (LKZ), Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,160 miles (or 8,304 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 Tonopah Test Range 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 Tonopah Test Range 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 Tonopah Test Range Airport (XSD):

• In 1980 the 4477th TEF was re-designated as the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron and the operation was renamed again to Constant Peg.
• After the 4477th TES was inactivated, the remaining assets were reconstituted as a detachment of the 57th Fighter Wing at Nellis AFB.
• The closest airport to Tonopah Test Range Airport (XSD) is Tonopah Airport (TPH), which is located 25 miles (40 kilometers) NW of XSD.
• The advent of Operation Rolling Thunder during the Vietnam War in March of 1965 led to the introduction of the obsolete and subsonic MiG-17 and the supersonic MiG-21 by the North Vietnamese Air Force being pitted against U.S.
• The furthest airport from Tonopah Test Range Airport (XSD) is Pierrefonds Airport (ZSE), which is located 11,207 miles (18,036 kilometers) away in Saint-Pierre, Réunion.
• In May 1973, when Project HAVE IDEA was initiated for joint technical and tactical evaluation of Soviet aircraft types, the tactical evaluation flights of foreign aircraft were undertaken by Detachment 1, 57th Fighter Weapons Wing.

Facts about RAF Lakenheath (LKZ):

• RAF Lakenheath, and nearby, RAF Mildenhall, are the two main U.S.
• The closest airport to RAF Lakenheath (LKZ) is RAF Mildenhall (MHZ), which is located only 4 miles (7 kilometers) SW of LKZ.
• Lakenheath Airfield was used by RAF flying units on detachment late in 1941.
• 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.
• 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.
• Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union in Europe began as early as 1946.