InFlightInfoStruct.timestamp - data update time ?

FlightAware AeroAPI
1

Hi !

I’ve been playing around with the Search API call. I’m noticing that the returned flights can often have pretty stale timestamps, e.g.:


[000] ASA331  5400f 215k 360deg (age: 5m58s)
[001] SWA375  8000f 248k 270deg (age: 5m46s)
[002] AAL259 12000f 387k  76deg (age:   31s)
[003] UAL219  8600f 267k 282deg (age:   46s)
[004] DAL233  9800f 264k 254deg (age:   30s)
[005] PAL104  5300f 202k  33deg (age:   29s)
[006] SWA240 14600f 310k 169deg (age: 5m45s)
[007] UAL174  9000f 270k 234deg (age:   25s)
[008] UAL306  3600f 186k 303deg (age:   20s)

I’m guessing (a) the position data is that many seconds/minutes out of date, and (b) if I want to get more recent than that then I should look at this ‘firehose’ thing - is that right ?

Thanks,

  • Adam
2

Those are about the expected latency.

For ADS-B equipped aircraft in our ADS-B coverage area we intend to provide position updates every 15-60 seconds depending on the flight characteristics.

For non-ADS-B aircraft we use a radar feed that is updated once per minute, with a 5 minute delay in the US and Canada.

Firehose would have about the same positions at the same time, maybe on one of the ADS-B aircraft you’d get lucky and see a fresher position that hadn’t made it through the FlightXML stack yet.

3

OK, that’s good to know. Thanks for the detail !