Since you have minute-by-minute positions of aircraft, would it be possible to select a certain time, and see all air traffic that was above a certain point at a certain time?
For example, select 15:30, and then either a lat/long, or a zoomable map, and see what was above at that point in time.
I’m not on the FA staff, so not responsible for implementation of your suggestion. As I understand, you want to be able to see a historical snapshot of all traffic in a certain area at a user-specified past time. I can’t help wondering: What use would that be?
I would use it. I don’t know how many times I have seen an intriguing vapor trail while I was taking the dog out, promising myself I’d check FlightAware to see what it was, then forgetting about it until a couple of hours later. If I could check time plots back (even if only for limited periods into the past) I would be able to figure many of these out. Jan nr CID
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve driven through my town, and wonder, “Damn, what airline is that?” as a strange 777 banks overhead. It would be great to be able to hop on the computer when I get home and check on FA who it was. There is already http://www.passur.com, but that only covers select airport areas (mine included), and it would be nice to have this data nationwide.