Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Piacenza, Italy:
Departure Airport:
Arrival Airport:
Distance from FFD to QPZ:
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- About this route
- FFD Airport Information
- QPZ Airport Information
- Facts about FFD
- Facts about QPZ
- Map of Nearest Airports to FFD
- List of Nearest Airports to FFD
- Map of Furthest Airports from FFD
- List of Furthest Airports from FFD
- Map of Nearest Airports to QPZ
- List of Nearest Airports to QPZ
- Map of Furthest Airports from QPZ
- List of Furthest Airports from QPZ
About this route:
A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Piacenza-San Damiano Air Base (QPZ), Piacenza, Italy would travel a Great Circle distance of 705 miles (or 1,134 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 RAF Fairford and Piacenza-San Damiano Air Base, the route shown on this map most likely still appears to be a straight line.
Departure Airport Information:
IATA / ICAO Codes: | FFD / EGVA |
Airport Name: | RAF Fairford |
Location: | Fairford, England, United Kingdom |
GPS Coordinates: | 51°40'55"N by 1°47'24"W |
Operator/Owner: | Ministry of Defence |
View all routes: | Routes from FFD |
More Information: | FFD Maps & Info |
Arrival Airport Information:
IATA / ICAO Codes: | QPZ / LIMS |
Airport Name: | Piacenza-San Damiano Air Base |
Location: | Piacenza, Italy |
GPS Coordinates: | 44°54'47"N by 9°43'23"E |
Airport Type: | Military |
Elevation: | 456 feet (139 meters) |
# of Runways: | 1 |
View all routes: | Routes from QPZ |
More Information: | QPZ Maps & Info |
Facts about RAF Fairford (FFD):
- The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
- Fairford was chosen in 1969 as the British test centre for the Concorde aircraft, which continued until 1977.
- KC-135 and KC-10 tankers deployed to Fairford supported Operation El Dorado Canyon against Libya in 1986.
- The furthest airport from RAF Fairford (FFD) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,898 miles (19,148 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
- RAF Fairford was constructed in 1944 to serve as an airfield for British and American troop carriers and gliders for the D-Day invasion of Normandy during World War II.
- Operations staff and maintenance personnel were permanently assigned, but aircraft, aircrews and crew chiefs were temporarily assigned to the 11th Strategic Group for the European Tanker Task Force on rotation.
- RAF Fairford was the only TransOceanic Abort Landing site for NASA's Space Shuttle in the UK.
- On 14 January 2004, the 420th Air Base Group was established at RAF Fairford to improve the control of its geographically separated units that had been aligned beneath the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall.
- In 1950, as a result of the beginning of the Cold War, the airfield was transferred to the U.S.
Facts about Piacenza-San Damiano Air Base (QPZ):
- The furthest airport from Piacenza-San Damiano Air Base (QPZ) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is nearly antipodal to Piacenza-San Damiano Air Base (meaning Piacenza-San Damiano Air Base is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Chatham Islands), and is located 12,122 miles (19,509 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
- The closest airport to Piacenza-San Damiano Air Base (QPZ) is Parma Airport (PMF), which is located 29 miles (46 kilometers) ESE of QPZ.
- Piacenza-San Damiano Air Base (QPZ) currently has only 1 runway.
- Because of Piacenza-San Damiano Air Base's relatively low elevation of 456 feet, planes can take off or land at Piacenza-San Damiano Air Base 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.