
Live air traffic of the world - vibrunazo
http://www.flightradar24.com/
======
state_machine
Pretty, though, just to nit-pick since I happen to be sitting on a plane,
seems to be not quite live: <http://cl.ly/image/002u2g152Y0T>

~~~
_djo_
Flightradar24's data comes from a network of volunteer-run ADS-B receivers,
which explains why the coverage is so much better over the US and Europe where
there are lots of volunteers with their own ADS-B receivers than the rest of
the world where there are not. Note for instance how coverage in Africa really
only picks up again in South Africa around the major cities.

ADS-B transponders are also not yet required on all aircraft outside of Europe
so many planes don't have them and won't show up on this site.

Some airline pilots will only activate certain modes of their ADS-B
transponders in flight after take-off, particular those used to broadcast
velocity and position, so it's possible that's what happened in your case.

For all other cases the upload from the ADS-B receiver to the Flightradar24
site will be as real-time as is possible with standard internet
infrastructure.

~~~
nmridul
Learned something new today. Till this moment I didn't know about ADS-B. Quick
link or people like me -
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillanc...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_dependent_surveillance-
broadcast)

Lots of stuff is happening in other domains too..

------
pitchups
Very impressive indeed. One of the coolest features of the site is the Cockpit
view - a very creative use of Google Maps and graphics to give you a Flight
Simulator like view from inside the cockpit of any of the thousands of
aircraft in the air.

~~~
marquis
I've been watching a plane 'land' via cockpit mode in my home town, a
surreally genuine experience given how well I know the terrain and have flown
in so many times. Each time the plane rolls to maneuver in, it's as if I'm
back on the flight.

Oh, now Google Earth crashed as it was getting to the good part. I feel like I
missed the ending of a movie.

------
Zaheer
Wow. That looks beautiful.

Note that just because there aren't that many planes over Africa or other
places doesn't mean there aren't planes there. From their site: "Today about
60% (about 30% in USA and about 70% in Europe) of the passenger aircraft and
only a small amount of military and private aircraft have an ADS-B
transponder."

------
69_years_and
Boats more your thing? <http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/>

~~~
nja
I've visited that site for a while, but I think this is a little more
exciting...planes tend to move faster than boats :)

Also, of course, the cockpit view is amazing.

~~~
69_years_and
Thanks - I think I need to check the cockpit view. I was recently travelling
by plane and from the high vantage point saw how many boats were around
Singapore - it was an eye opener.

------
jpalomaki
There is also a similar site for marine traffic:
<http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/>

The technology behind the system is the same as in FlightRadar (on principle).
The ships have AIS[1] transponders which transmit the position and velocity.
This information is received through receivers run by army of volunteers and
then submitted to the central site.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Identification_System>

------
piffey
Anyone else surprised by the number of flights in the air at any given time? I
never even imagined that there was this much activity even though I'm a
frequent flyer.

~~~
bulltale
I read somewhere that on average at any given time, 70-80% of all large
commercial planes in service is _in the air_. Compare that to trains or
trucks.

~~~
losvedir
Well, yeah, but those aren't meant to fly... :-p

Seriously, though, that number is quite impressive. In order for that number
to work across the population of airplanes, that means on average each
aircraft individually needs to spend 70-80% of its time flying. Yikes! I've
tried searching a bit for a source, but unfortunately can't find one. If you
know where you got that from, I'd love to know.

~~~
bulltale
I did some digging and my statement only seems to apply to long-haul flights,
as mentioned in this thread [1]. "Well,most long-haul fleets fly a lot more
than short-haul ones.BA 772s and VS 343s fly about 17 hours per day." That is
71%! Average utilization is between 42% and 48%. See [2], Figure 6.

[1] [http://www.airliners.net/aviation-
forums/general_aviation/re...](http://www.airliners.net/aviation-
forums/general_aviation/read.main/1164547/) [2]
[http://web.mit.edu/airlines/analysis/analysis_airline_indust...](http://web.mit.edu/airlines/analysis/analysis_airline_industry.html)

~~~
khuey
My guess is that most long-haul aircraft are flying overnight (since you have
to do to a trans-oceanic route) while most short-haul aircraft are parked
overnight (there aren't _that_ many short-haul red-eye flights).

------
zrail
This is very neat! I love it. Uh, I don't know if this is an error or if
they're doing flight testing, but this is a very weird track:
<http://fr24.com/KAL32>

------
joshzayin
Cockpit view is generating an error: "The Google Maps API key used on this web
site was registered for a different web site. The developer of this web site
can generate a new key here.

(here links to <https://developers.google.com/maps/>)

~~~
soitgoes
from the forum - "If you have problems with "Aircraft View" or API-key, make
sure to install latest version of Google Earth plugin-in
<http://www.google.com/earth/explore/products/plugin.html> and remove your ad-
blocker."

I logged in to google earth, paused ad blocker and cockpit view is now working
for me.

------
colinhowe
I never truly appreciated how many planes are in the air until now..

~~~
spyder
and also 13000 satellites: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydbbd-4oEds>

------
bencoder
Enjoying it combined with ATC feeds from <http://www.liveatc.net>

------
mikeash
Really cool, but the constant nagging popups telling me to download the app
instead were unbelievably annoying.

------
chmars
A similar project with an academic background is 'AirTraffic LIVE':

<http://radar.zhaw.ch/>

It was created by students of a Swiss college of applied science in 2007. The
test site is focus on Zurich International Airport but they have completed
other projects based an their research. A spectacular example is a globe
showing air traffic world wide created for a science museum:

<http://radar.zhaw.ch/worldwide.html>

There is also a Google Earth extension for private use:

[http://www.idp.zhaw.ch/de/engineering/idp/forschung/transpor...](http://www.idp.zhaw.ch/de/engineering/idp/forschung/transport-
and-traffic-engineering/real-time-air-traffic-in-3d.html)

------
progrock
Love it! There's alot of activity! How many planes, how many people up in the
air in an average moment? All this talk of a third runway / increased flight
support in the UK, but really - how much oil is left - how sustainable is this
industry?

~~~
progrock
Kind of related Q and A: [http://www.careerfaqs.com.au/careers/interview-
questions-and...](http://www.careerfaqs.com.au/careers/interview-questions-
and-tips/job-interview-question-and-answer-how-many-people-are-there-flying-
in-airplanes-over-the-us-right-now/)

------
nja
Interesting...does JetBlue use two types of radar? I'm often seeing two icons
for one flight: <http://imgur.com/a/kENc0>

~~~
dll
The orange planes you see are from the FAA ASDI Data. That feed is delayed by
5 minutes. I would guess the site is meant to ignore the FAA data where ADS-B
data is available, but in this case it looks like the call sign is incomplete
in the ADS-B data.

~~~
nja
That makes sense. Thanks!

------
jvandenbroeck
Cool!:p I'm living next to an airport and it looks like it doesn't pickup
everything (or some too late), but just a few minutes ago I heard a plane
coming by & it was also on flightradar =')

Idea: people give their location & the app says when to expect noise from
airplanes and when it will be away=)

------
kgarten
nice ... are there any APIs for getting up-to-date flight traffic? Might be
fun to play around with it.

------
cefarix
The flight map over South Asia, China, and most of South America looks to be
very incomplete.

~~~
mixmastamyk
Probably the time of day, I notice many more planes in Europe.

~~~
shortsightedsid
I wonder it live or delayed. Its 10.30 in India and past noon in China.

------
smcl
Just remembered that I found Donald Trump on this a while back - he was flying
in to my home city of Aberdeen:

[http://blog.mclemon.cz/i-found-donald-trump-in-flight-
radar-...](http://blog.mclemon.cz/i-found-donald-trump-in-flight-radar-24)

~~~
longjohnbenton
Isn't that just a trump branded plane? He runs a company that charters them
out doesn't he? How did you deduce (perhaps you induced) that he was on this
plane?

~~~
smcl
Good question. He has been back and forth to Aberdeen setting up some gaudy
trump branded golf resort. A couple of days after I took the screenshot he
appeared before the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh. This is how I concluded
he was in the plane, though I admit there is a minor chance that I am
mistaken!

The site itself is fantastic though, I could spend ages just finding out what
planes are going where and thinking about where I might visit next. Plus the
coloured trails to indicate the altitude are a lovely touch.

edit: it was during this time (excellent clip, by the way)
[http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-
april-26-2012/hairland...](http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-
april-26-2012/hairlander)

------
mirsadm
Cockpit view is brilliant. Just watching a plane land back home right now :)

------
avaku
Why cockpit view is not working for me? It says: The Google Maps API key used
on this website was registered for a different website. The developer of this
website can generate a new key here.

------
001sky
Thanks for posting this is amazing.

The cockpit view is very cool. Reminds me: You can climb Mt everest also now
on Google Earth.

South Col etc. At 8000m, somewhat crazy but similar views =D

------
Andrew_Quentin
I thought there would be a corridor of never ending planes between north
America and Europe. According to the map, there are no transatlantic flights.

~~~
bisrig
The issue with the oceanic flights is that there are no receiving stations for
the ADS-B messages, as these stations are ground based. Therefore, there is no
way to receive the position reports to feed into the flight data network.

------
nja
This is crazy cool. I love the cockpit view!

------
jasonzemos
Looks like the Virgin Atlantic and British Airways 747's hit 600+ knots on the
redeye across the pond.

------
curiousDog
This is beyond fantastic. Just wow!

------
nodesocket
Amazing, didn't realize at any given time, how many planes are in the air
around the world.

~~~
MikeCodeAwesome
Indeed. According to the August, 2012 print edition of Popular Science, there
are 500,000 people being transported in air at any given moment.

------
akg
Would be really awesome to see a write up about what powers all this on the
back end.

------
josscrowcroft
That is absolutely incredible!

------
rapidstuff
Absolutely amazing!

------
dhughes
planefinder.net is similar.

I live in south-eastern Canada and I can confirm it's very accurate, big jets
to and from Europe constantly rumble overhead.

------
dinnu
Wow..Fantastic..Cockpit view really awesome.

------
khet
Amazing how many will not find this amazing.

------
arunoda
Wow, this is amazing.

------
mukaiji
bravo! Way to kill my productivity.

------
ricksta
no plane around beijing?

