# UFO Travel Calculator (Just for Fun)

URL: https://speedycalculator.com/calculators/physics/ufo-travel/
Last updated: 2026-10-30

> The UFO travel calculator is a just-for-fun tool that finds the great-circle distance between two world cities and how long a (fictional) UFO – or an airliner for comparison – would take to fly between them.

## Inputs

- Origin
- Destination
- Craft

## Results

- Great-circle distance
- Travel time
- Airliner (900 km/h) for comparison

## Formula

```
Haversine: d = 2R·asin(√(sin²(Δφ/2) + cos φ₁·cos φ₂·sin²(Δλ/2))),  t = d/v
```

## Explanation

If a flying saucer zipped between New York and Tokyo at Mach 20, how long would the trip take? This playful calculator uses real geography (the great-circle route) and imaginary craft to compare with an ordinary airliner.

### How to use the UFO Travel Calculator

- **Origin**
- **Destination**
- **Craft**

This is a just-for-fun calculator; the craft are fictional. Everything is calculated in your browser.

### How it works

Choose the origin and destination cities and the type of craft.

### Inputs explained

FieldWhat to enterOriginChoose one: New York, London, Paris, Tokyo …DestinationChoose one: New York, London, Paris, Tokyo …CraftChoose one: Classic flying saucer (Mach 5), Cigar-shaped craft (Mach 20), Tic-tac (Mach 60), Mothership (1% of light speed) …

### What each result means

- **Great-circle distance** = 2×6371000×asin(sqrt(sin(([p2] - [p1])÷2)^2 + cos([p1])×cos([p2])×sin(([l2] - [l1])÷2)^2))
- **Travel time** = [Great-circle distance]÷[Craft]÷3600
- **Airliner (900 km/h) for comparison** = [Great-circle distance]÷250÷3600

## Worked example

Inputs — Origin: New York; Destination: Tokyo; Craft: Cigar-shaped craft (Mach 20).

Results — Great-circle distance = 10,851.73285 km; **Travel time = 0 h 26 min**; Airliner (900 km/h) for comparison = 12 h 3 min.

## Key terms

- **Great circle**: Shortest path between two points on a sphere.

## FAQ

**Are UFOs real?**
Unidentified flying objects exist in the sense of unexplained sightings – there's no evidence of alien craft.

**Why use the great-circle distance?**
It is the shortest path over the Earth's surface.

**Could anything fly at Mach 20 in the air?**
Air friction would heat it enormously; re-entering spacecraft experience this.

**How accurate are the distances?**
Within about 0.5% (spherical Earth model).


## Sources

- [NASA – Planetary fact sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/)
- [OpenStax – Astronomy 2e](https://openstax.org/details/books/astronomy-2e)