Flight Distance Calculator

How to Use This Calculator

1. Enter the latitude and longitude for your first location in degrees. Positive values for North and East, negative for South and West.
2. Enter the latitude and longitude for your second location in degrees.
3. Select the distance unit you want to use: Kilometers, Miles, or Nautical Miles.
4. Click the "Calculate" button to compute the great-circle distance between the two points.
5. The result will be displayed showing the distance between the two points.

About the Haversine Formula

The Haversine formula calculates the great-circle distance between two points on a sphere given their longitudes and latitudes. It's named after the British amateur astronomer and mathematician霍华德·哈维辛 (John Henry Savile) who first published it in 1805.

This formula is particularly useful for calculating distances on the Earth's surface, as it accounts for the Earth's curvature. The great-circle distance is the shortest distance between two points on the surface of a sphere.

Example

Let's calculate the distance between New York City (approximately 40.7128° N, -74.0060° W) and London (approximately 51.5074° N, -0.1278° W):

Enter 40.7128 for latitude 1 and -74.0060 for longitude 1
Enter 51.5074 for latitude 2 and -0.1278 for longitude 2
Select kilometers as the unit
The calculated distance should be approximately 5579 km
                

Notes

• This calculator uses the WGS-84 ellipsoid model of the Earth, which is the standard used by GPS systems.
• The calculated distance is the shortest path between the two points on the Earth's surface, not necessarily a flight path which might be affected by terrain, air traffic control, etc.
• For more accurate results for real-world flight paths, you might need to account for factors like wind, air routes, and elevation changes.