Where do you get your data? Do you go directly to FAA our use an intermediary?
How about some webservices data feeds so we can make mashups with your data?
FlightAware receives live data streams from the FAA. We intend to soon offer APIs for external applications and launch the API with a handful of applications that we’ve written.
What applications do you have in mind? We would prefer to offer most services directly through our web site.
Not really sure but have observed many cool things arising out of mashups (like various uses of google maps tied in with other webservices)
One this it would be fun to play with is various visualizations of the real time and short term historical traffic data.
Another would be an automatic log book, aircraft usage tracking type of application.
gene
We definitely are going to offer statistics like you describe. I think you can look forward to the API and you’ll be pleased. I don’t think you can expect real-time position updates through the API though.
Are you tracking transponder position data for VFR flights?
In another area, I had asked about erratic map flight paths. A Dallas/Phoenix flight showed that track, but also a Phoenix/Buffalo side-track. I’d asked how that would happen and the response was that transponder position data (for an identical squawk number) may have intruded on the flight I had looked at.
Now I’m looking at N359PS, last shown with a KSDF/KADS flight path on November 10. I was at KADS on November 11 and watched that aircraft take off. That flight is not in your log, but the flight track map shows KSDF/KADS with a side trip to the area of KGGG and return.
The November 11 flight was probably VFR rules. It was 1000 hrs on a clear day.
So my question is, if that flight was VFR rules, but with a transponder squawking, would the flight track simply be appended to the latest track under IFR rules?
Earlier I’d noticed something similar. A short IFR track to KADS, but with a lot of additional squiggly tracking in the general KADS area. I’d seen that plane take off from KADS, but the last IFR record was days earlier. The squiggly track looks like a couple of hours of VFR sightseeing with a return to that airport.
Hi, Toby.
We sometimes receive position updates from flights that are operating VFR with a discrete transponder code. However, we won’t receive the origin, destination, aircraft type, departure, or arrival information.
We’re working on improvements for how this is handled, but right now, you could potentially see the VFR flight overlayed on top of the last IFR flight in a track map with the most recent IFR flight data being presented on a track page.
I think that’s pretty much how you described it and you understand it to work – but I hope my comments clarify things.