Now Able To Track Aircraft Anywhere On The World

FlightAware has announced that they are now able to track aircraft anywhere in the world, including positions in the air and activity on the ground. "Since most disruption happens while an aircraft is on the ground, there's tremendous value in having insight into what's going on before and after takeoff, particularly for our business aviation customers," said Daniel Baker, FlightAware Founder and CEO.

FlightAware's terrestrial ADS-B network has grown by over 35% in the first 3 quarters of this year, with over 19,000 sites in nearly 190 countries. This terrestrial network will provide surface coverage at over 1,000 airports and 2,000 FBOs. FlightAware recently enabled its receivers to capture Mode-S weather data, including wind vector (direction and velocity) as well as outside air temperature and pressure. The Mode-S update also captures autopilot settings and nav modes.

Through its FlightFeeder program, FlightAware manufactures and distributes terrestrial ADS-B receivers to volunteers around the world. The devices track aircraft emitting ADS-B signals for over 250 nautical miles and can also track planes that are not yet ADS-B equipped through a process called multilateration. "Our network of hosts represent a worldwide effort to improve flight tracking," said Eric Carlson, product manager of FlightAware's ADS-B network. "This community is enabling us to really innovate the way flights are tracked in the air as well as on the ground."

In addition to FlightAware's terrestrial network, which provides once-per-second position updates for aircraft on the ground and flying over land, FlightAware has partnered with AireonSM to eliminate flight tracking coverage gaps over oceanic, polar and desert regions. Aireon's space-based ADS-B network is hosted on the Iridium NEXT constellation of low-earth-orbit satellites and provides 100 percent truly global flight tracking coverage with once-per-minute position updates.  

Until recently, Aireon space-based ADS-B wasn't available to most business aviation operators. FlightAware delivered it primarily to commercial operators through its APIs, partnerships with the industry's leading Aircraft Situational Display (ASD) providers such as SITAONAIR, and through GlobalBeacon – an alerting dashboard developed jointly by Aireon and FlightAware for compliance with the Global Aeronautical Distress Safety System (GADSS).

Yesterday, FlightAware announced that it would extend Aireon space-based ADS-B to business aviation operators by making it available through FlightAware Global. FlightAware Global is used by thousands of business aviation operators around the world as a means of selectively unblocking their aircraft for private tracking and integrating privileged flight tracking data from air traffic control organizations and datalink providers. By adding Aireon space-based ADS-B, these operators now have a cost-efficient means of tracking their aircraft anywhere in the world.    

Combining Aireon space-based ADS-B with surface coverage from FlightAware's terrestrial network allows operators to track their aircraft from the moment it powers on at its destination to the second it parks at its destination FBO or airport. Positions are updated at least once-per-minute in the air and at least once-per-second on the ground. "For business aviation operators, this combination improves operational safety while supporting reliability and optimization," Baker said.

(Image provided with FlightAware news release)

FMI: flightaware.com