Photo Courtesy of ADS-B Exchange 

Everyday at  San Luis Obispo High School airplanes pass overhead, from airliner jets heading to Japan to flight instructors in turboprops teaching someone how to fly.

Don’t you aver wonder where these planes are going or who they belong to? Thankfully we can use websites like Flightaware.com or Adsbexchange.com to find out. Both websites track aircraft, but they display different data.  

“I use FlightAware, you can find different aircraft in the air, their location, altitude, speed and sometimes information about the owner,” said sophomore Alec MacDonald.

FlightAware provides real time, historical, and predictive flight tracking data. Using FlightAware you can find a plane’s flight plan and departure and arrival times. You can also see the owner, tail number and more information about the plane. While FlightAware is currently the world’s largest flight tracking platform its one downside is that it censors military and “unlisted“ flights.

ADSBexchange operates a bit differently from FlightAware, their main goal is to answer the question of what plane is that rather than is my flight on time. It displays only real time and historical positional data. You’ll never see an aircraft censored or “blocked” from their site. If one of their ADS-B feeders is receiving it, the data will be there. This includes military, and other aircraft that attempt to be “unlisted”.

¨So in the plane that I’ve been doing flight training in, there is ADS-B out capability so we can transmit our location,  we use it to find our current location and to ensure that the bigger airliners and towers can see where we are,” said MacDonald

The way FlightAware and ADS-B Exchange track aircraft, is they use a worldwide network of ADS-B receivers that track ADS-B equipped aircraft flying around the globe, and display it on their website. ADS-B stands for Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast. ADS-B equipped aircraft emit their exact position on radio frequencies anyone can pick up with the right equipment.

Next time you see a plane in the sky and you’re curious, go to one of these sites to get some more information about it!