Aviation Converter
Convert distance, speed, and altitude for flight planning and navigation
A flight plan lists 1,200 nautical miles of range, wind reports come in knots, and altitude is measured in feet. None of those match the units you use on the ground, so cross-checking a route means converting all three.
Open the length converter →1 Nautical Mile = 1.1508 Mile
These conversions are for general reference only. Flight planning, separation minimums, and navigation decisions require certified instruments and official aeronautical charts, not a web calculator.
Context
Aviation runs on nautical miles, knots, and feet because those units connect to navigation charts and the Earth's coordinate grid. Nautical miles tie to degrees of latitude, knots measure speed in nautical miles per hour, and altitude in feet ties back to a long-standing aviation convention that predates the metric system.
Pilots, dispatchers, and anyone reading a flight plan or aviation weather briefing convert between these and everyday units like statute miles and mph, especially when comparing route distances to something more familiar or briefing passengers unfamiliar with aviation units.
All Aviation Converter Conversions
Why this matters
Checking a flight's range against a road-trip distance
An aircraft's published range is 1,500 nautical miles. You want to know how that compares to the highway distance you'd drive for the same trip.
Reading wind speed from a weather briefing
The pre-flight weather briefing reports wind at 25 knots. You're more used to thinking in mph and want a quick sense of how strong that wind is.
Converting cruising altitude for a non-pilot
A flight tracking app shows a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. You want that number in meters to compare against a mountain height you're familiar with.
Cross-checking a private pilot's flight plan
A student pilot plans a 300 nautical mile cross-country flight and needs the distance in statute miles to compare against a sectional chart's road references.
Frequently asked
A flight plan says 800 nautical miles. How far is that in regular miles? →
800 nautical miles is about 920.6 miles. Use Nautical Miles to Miles for any flight-plan or aviation range figure.
How fast is 30 knots in mph? →
30 knots is about 34.5 mph. Use Knots to MPH to convert wind speed or aircraft speed into a more familiar unit.
Why does altitude use feet instead of meters? →
Feet became the international aviation standard for altitude in the mid-20th century and stuck, even in countries that use meters for everything else. A small number of countries, including Russia and China, use meters for altitude instead. Use Feet to Meters when comparing altitude across the two systems.
Is a knot the same as a nautical mile per hour? →
Yes, they're identical by definition. A knot is one nautical mile per hour, so Knots to MPH converts a speed already expressed in nautical miles per hour into statute miles per hour.