Nonstop flight route between Zweibrücken, Germany and Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Zweibrücken Airport (ZQW), Zweibrücken, Germany and Grand Forks Air Force Base (RDR), Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,368 miles (or 7,030 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 Zweibrücken Airport and Grand Forks Air Force Base, 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 Zweibrücken Airport and Grand Forks Air Force Base. 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 Zweibrücken Airport (ZQW):

• In addition to being known as "Zweibrücken Airport", another name for ZQW is "Flughafen Zweibrücken".
• The closest airport to Zweibrücken Airport (ZQW) is Saarbrücken Airport (SCN), which is located only 13 miles (21 kilometers) W of ZQW.
• Zweibrücken Airport features a small terminal building equipped with three aircraft stands next to it.
• Zweibrücken Airport is located on the site of the former Zweibrücken Air Base which was shut down in 1991.
• The furthest airport from Zweibrücken Airport (ZQW) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is nearly antipodal to Zweibrücken Airport (meaning Zweibrücken Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Chatham Islands), and is located 12,021 miles (19,346 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• In 2010 264,247 passengers used the airport, while 242,880 passengers used it in 2012.
• Zweibrücken Airport (ZQW) currently has only 1 runway.
• Zweibrücken Airport handled 220,740 passengers last year.

Facts about Grand Forks Air Force Base (RDR):

• SAGE operations were extremely expansive and GFADS was inactivated on 1 December 1963, when it was merged with the Minot Air Defense Sector at Minot AFB to the west.
• The closest airport to Grand Forks Air Force Base (RDR) is Grand Forks International Airport (GFK), which is located only 10 miles (17 kilometers) E of RDR.
• During 1965, the wing’s three missile squadrons were activated and crew training and certification began at Vandenberg AFB in southern California.
• In addition to being known as "Grand Forks Air Force Base", another name for RDR is "Grand Forks AFB".
• On 26 May 1972, President Nixon and Soviet general secretary Leonid Brezhnev signed the ABM Treaty, which limited each nation to one site to protect strategic forces and one site to protect the "National Command Authority." With work about 85 percent complete at Grand Forks, the United States chose to finish construction at the North Dakota site.
• On 1 September 1958, the Strategic Air Command established the 4133d Strategic Wing at Grand Forks as part of its plan to disperse its B-52 heavy bombers over a larger number of bases, thus making it more difficult for the Soviet Union to knock out the entire fleet with a surprise first strike.
• In 1973, the 319th Bomb Wing acquired the AGM-69 Short Range Attack Missile, replacing the older AGM-28 Hound Dog air-to-ground missile aboard its B-52H aircraft.
• The furthest airport from Grand Forks Air Force Base (RDR) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 10,504 miles (16,904 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.