Live flight radar

The free & real time flight radar on the internet.

The flight radar: Simply clear and always up to date

If you want to know where your friends, family, acquaintances, private or business contacts are located exactly by air, you can easily do it with the flight radar like Flightradar24. This allows locating and tracking any public flight – whether domestic, short or long on the international route – this is completely free.

At the same time interesting data can be collected, which fascinate technology fans as well as aircraft laymen alike. If you want to use the flight radar for flight tracking, you can – very easily, free of charge and without effort – pursue. For this, the person only needs an internet-enabled device, with which he can call up the corresponding website.

Thus one can determine a possible flight delay already in advance and act accordingly. Nevertheless, one should not rely only on the flight radar, a look at the flight times of the corresponding aircraft is always useful.

Air travel in facts infographicJust paste this infographic into your web page using the embed code below. Please also link Welshpoolairshow.co.uk as source – Thank you.

This is how the fly radar works

The data recorded with the flight radar like Flightradar24 will be provided to the air traffic control, authorities and Co. This is done primarily for security reasons. In this way, collisions, accidents and crimes are avoided.

The flights recorded with the flight radar are always civil flights of the various airlines, as military airmen use a separate signal. The data of the civil flights are publicly available, so that websites may make these available to the user for a free flight radar like Flightradar24. The signal communicates constantly, so that any flying object that is in the air can be located at any time on its respective flight path.

The location of the aircraft is done via fly radar. A flight radar like Flightradar24 collects data transmitted by the aircraft’s signal. This ADS-B transponder are used, which are attached to any modern aircraft and beyond 2017 are legally compulsory for the use of aviation. These transponders send two signals per second, each indicating the current flight position and visualizing it on the flight radar. This high signal frequency is based on the average flight speed of 900 kilometers per hour and allows a very accurate location of the flying object. Unfortunately, if you are a fan of Bubble Shooter games then we have to disappoint you, because with a fly radar you can not figure out how the Bubbles will fly ?

Flight radar – aircraft spotting?

To give you an idea of what all kinds of doors are for you with the flight radar, we would like to invite you to a brief excursion on the subject of aircraft spotting. Aircraft spotting is generally recognized as a hobby in which an individual or a group of people attempt to monitor the behavior, appearance and function of an aircraft. A good camera and a steady hand can lead not only to pure documentation facts, but also to impressive pictures. In order to get all, but really all, information from a block of information, the course, airline and airport or airfield are also considered.

Aircraft spotting – How do you do that?

Of particular importance, such as Even in the natural sciences, the recognition of certain characteristics is important in order to be able to determine the aircraft. Recognizable at first glance or hearing, the noise coming from the engines as well as the emission of the same is clear. The observer is also aware of the size, serial number, type and position of the drive. Nonetheless, the position of the wings relative to the fuel tanks can also be fixed to whatever it is. Normally the wings are either under, over or next to the fuel tank. Quite easily recognizable, and almost everyone knows the fact that an airplane can have more than two wings. This feature then classifies the aviator as monoplane, biplane or triple decker. Also strongly distinguishable are the elevator, the rudder, as well as the chassis of an aircraft for aircraft spotting.

Some other particular parameters of an aircraft may be e.g. the speed, placement of the cockpit, the color scheme of the outer layer or a special shape of the aircraft, which is either due to the model or some special equipment. All these features together help to give a very clear classification and characterization of the machine.

flight radar airport scoreboard

Radar base: Electromagnetic waves

The location by radio waves you already know of bats. These nocturnal animals send out sound waves and receive their reflection through their funnel-shaped ears. As a result, they can find their way in the dark without light.

A flight radar like Flightradar24 is used in a similar way to tracking and orientation by emitting radio waves. These are electromagnetic waves in a frequency range below 3000 GHz. Heinrich Hertz experimentally demonstrated in the years 1885 that metallic objects reflect radio waves and can be located accordingly.

Based on the results of Hertz, Christian Hülsmeyer conducted various experiments with radio waves at the beginning of the 20th century. He developed the first precursors for today’s ship and flight radar. The so-called telemobiloscope was able to reliably signal passing ships by a bell. It was patented in 1904 and then fell into oblivion.

Over the next few decades, the fly radar principle has not been further developed. Although independent of Hülsmeyer other physicists like the Italian Guglielmo Marconi came up with the idea to locate metallic objects by means of radio waves.

The story – Origin

The flight tracking by fly radar is an exciting thing for many aircraft fans. Easy and comfortable from home you can observe the movements in the airspace. Like an air traffic controller or pilot feel. But how is that possible? The basis for the flight tracking and the flight monitoring at the airport or in the cockpit, is a so-called flight radar like Flightradar24.

One of the first applications for radars was the roundness radar. This served to monitor the air and shipping traffic. The constant advancement of radar technology has now made the flight radar standard equipment for civil and military aviation. There one uses the flight radar not only for navigation and orientation, but also for cartography and data acquisition.

Until then it was a long way. Because the history of the flight radar begins already in the 19th century…

flight radar airport

Such was the way of the radar

It was only in the 1930s that various major powers, including Germany, England or the United States, recognized the importance of radar. From 1935, the research also moved in the direction of the aircraft radar, for example, as early warning system for air strikes. In the past few years, shipping was the focus of radar research.

The German electrical engineer Wilhelm Runge, who worked for the company Telefunken, used the first time a radar device as a flight radar. In 1935, he set up the antenna of his locating device to detect a Ju 52 that flew about 5000m above his head. Similar field tests with a flight radar also took place in the UK in 1935. It was possible to detect aircraft at a distance of up to 13000m. By comparison, today’s commercial aircraft have an altitude of about 5000 – 10,000m. Modern flight radars measure a distance of up to 100 km.

In the following years

In the following years, research was mainly carried out on aircraft radars, which correctly reported the arrival and flight of aircraft. They could be used stationary. With Chain Home, the British created a chain of radar stations on the east coast in 1936. In Germany too, early warning systems based on aviation radars were manufactured. A well-known example is, among others, the radio measuring device Freya, which was developed in 1937 by GEMA.

In addition to stationary flight radars were during the 2nd World War Bordradare more relevant. In the cockpit of a hunter or fighter pilot they were used for locating and targeting. In 1940, the first time a flight radar was installed in an airplane by the British. 1941 developed the company Telefunken with the Strahleranlage Knickebein and the night fighter Lichtenstein BS similar devices in Germany.

flight radar propeller plane

Research in the postwar period

During the Second World War, the flight radar was used both on the ground and on board aircraft. After the war, the aircraft radar found its way into civil aviation. In Germany, however, research and development came to a standstill for the time being. This was partly due to a ban by the Allies, which lasted until 1950. In the US, the flight radar was steadily improved during this time. For example, by the use of new components such as semiconductors or microprocessors.

Noteworthy is, for example, the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). This radar is used for remote sensing in aircraft or satellites. Even in bad weather conditions, it provides easily interpretable, two-dimensional images of the earth’s surface. The best for exploration and cartography are suitable.

At the present time

Today, Air Traffic Control (ATC) is one of the most important applications for aircraft radar. Stationary radar systems monitor the airspace and regulate air traffic. Usually a primary and secondary flight radar is used. The primary flight radar like Flightradar24 works on the classic fly radar principle. So determines the position of aircraft only based on the reflection of emitted sound waves.

The secondary flight radar, on the other hand, works with response signals. Most modern aircraft have an ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast) transmitter installed. This transponder transmits various data. Like aircraft type or orientation that the primary flight radar can not detect.

Flight radar and ADS-B transmitters together form the basis for a tight monitoring of the airspace. Over the land regions of the USA this amounts to approximately 90%. And also in Europe, a large part of the movements above continental regions can be excellently reproduced by flight radar like Flightradar24.

The data collected by a flight radar is publicly available. On a map next to position and flight history also interesting additional information is listed. Among other things, the altitude, the occurrence of turbulence or the type of aircraft.