Awesome in-flight airplane tracking website (NSR)

**bakers_dozen** · 03-01-2006, 10:04 PM

http://flightaware.com

Pretty awesome. Updated every 6 mins you can see where a specific flight is and all its details in midair. No more waiting around at airports waiting for people wondering where the flight is exactly and how long it is delayed.

Wait till it gets close to you city and go pick your people up.

Check out the animation of all the flights in the USA and CANADA in a single day. Puts it into perspective how "safe" airtravel is.

**bakers_dozen** · 03-01-2006, 10:06 PM

For example here is a flight being tracked live, flying over the Pacific from San Francisco to Hawaii... Even has a map of where it is in air... Its updated every 6 mins apparently

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL79

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**Alek** · 03-01-2006, 10:13 PM

Welcome to 1996

**bakers_dozen** · 03-01-2006, 10:15 PM

Originally Posted by Alek

Welcome to 1996

right... I didn't see you sharing it, it's out since March

**bio-smear** · 03-01-2006, 10:19 PM

It only tracks flights that are on an IFR flight plan, which is pretty much all airline travel. Still cool though. I wonder what's involved with gaining realtime access to FAA ARTCC data.

**ak_powder_monkey** · 03-01-2006, 10:36 PM

Theres also a widget for mac that does the flight tracker thing

the tail number thing is SWEET

**Crinkle** · 03-01-2006, 10:45 PM

yeah i use http://www.flightview.com/ which is pretty sweet too

**spindrift** · 03-01-2006, 10:56 PM

Originally Posted by ak_powder_monkey

the tail number thing is SWEET

it is borderline creepy...cool though...

**coastal** · 03-01-2006, 11:05 PM

cool... I've been using FlyteComm.com for the past few years but have to admit it's kind of lacking compared to these... Big Ups to this thread!

**Ski Monkey** · 03-01-2006, 11:28 PM

Nice, I just dropped yentna off at the airport to fly to anchorage.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL806

**summit** · 03-02-2006, 12:45 AM

Why do they all say "HIJACKED" or "CRASHED"?

**bio-smear** · 03-02-2006, 12:57 AM

The FAA database is full of information that is more public than the DMV database. I looked up Harrison Ford once, and there was his Jackson, WY address. You can easily find the owner of any airplane given the N-number, and get their personal address by doing a query on their name.

**bbirtle** · 03-05-2006, 04:22 AM

That made my "pointless but cool thing of the day" just now.

**HyRUPz** · 03-05-2006, 08:00 AM

Wow ... checked out big airports and it looked hella busy.

**edg** · 03-05-2006, 08:02 AM

A similar sytem was in Sherlock on OS X in ~2000, but is indeed very neat.

edg

**BenWA** · 03-09-2006, 05:56 PM

this is pretty cool, too:

http://flightaware.com/analysis/allflights_movie.rvt

Kinda neet how the traffic activity dies off in the late pm/early morning and then picks back up in the morning, starting heaviest on the east coast then propegating west.

**Mcwop** · 03-09-2006, 06:00 PM

Until you go to pick someone up on a flight endlessly circling Newark airport. [/cynicism]

**Son1cdeth** · 03-09-2006, 07:13 PM

Thanks for this Bakers. That site is pretty sweet. I really like how it keeps the past 7 days of a certain flight, and they're actual departure and arrival times. It will come in handy.

**BenWA** · 03-09-2006, 07:46 PM

Originally Posted by bio-smear

It only tracks flights that are on an IFR flight plan, which is pretty much all airline travel. Still cool though. I wonder what's involved with gaining realtime access to FAA ARTCC data.

Like realtime radar targets you mean? I'm fairly certain that kind of data is not available to computers on the ground. The only way that I know of is with a TIS capable transponder onboard an aircraft. I think they were gonna make an XM satellite link system where the radar data is beamed to satellites and can be received by special GPS receivers that can decode the data, but I'm not sure if that stuff is out.

p.s., Sorry if this is too much information.