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Longer Flight: How to Judge Flight Distances (Tips and Strategy)
Longer Flight shows two routes and asks which covers the greater distance. It looks like a map quiz, but it is really about building a feel for how big the Earth is. This guide gives you the numbers and tricks to answer quickly.
Distance means great-circle distance
The game measures the shortest path between two airports over the surface of the Earth. This is called the great-circle distance. It is the baseline airlines plan around, although real flights are usually a little longer because of winds, weather and restricted airspace. See How it works for the maths.
Anchors worth memorising
You do not need exact numbers. A handful of reference distances let you estimate almost anything:
- The Earth's circumference is about 40,000 km, so the furthest two points can be apart is about 20,000 km.
- One degree of latitude is about 111 km, anywhere on Earth.
- London to New York is about 5,500 km, a good yardstick for a transatlantic flight.
- Singapore to New York is roughly 15,300 km, close to the long-haul maximum for airliners.
- Europe to East Asia is typically 8,000 to 10,000 km.
A quick method
- Decide whether each route crosses an ocean. Ocean crossings are usually 5,000 km or more.
- Count roughly how many "London to New York" lengths each route is.
- If both are about the same, look at the Southern Hemisphere and polar cases: routes there look shorter on a flat map than they really are.
Why the flat map fools you
Most maps stretch the areas near the poles, so distances at high latitudes look bigger than they are. Two routes of equal true length can look very different. Trust the numbers you have memorised more than your eyes. If you want to explore this directly, try Shortcut, which compares three drawn routes.
Playing the harder levels
On Easy, one route is often 30 to 50 percent longer than the other. On Hard the gap can be only 1 or 2 percent, which is too close to judge by eye. At that point, think about each airport's latitude and longitude and add up the degrees. If you are still unsure, pick the route that crosses more ocean.
Frequently asked questions
Is the distance the flying time?
No. Longer Flight uses distance only. Flying time also depends on wind, which can add or save an hour or more on the same route.
Do these airports really have flights between them?
Not necessarily. The game compares pairs of major airports. Some are flown nonstop daily and some are not flown at all.
What is Unlimited mode?
It is survival: keep answering until you get one wrong. The gaps shrink as your streak grows.
Keep learning
Related guides: Route Ranking, Shortcut, Overflown. Or browse all game guides and the country pages.