Every plane you see in the sky – you can now follow it from the cockpit in 3D

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ccoolwulf 5 days ago 71 commentsRead Article on flight-viz.com

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Discussion (71 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

tetris11•1 day ago

I'm currently flying at Mach 10 on a custom call sign, breaking all kinds of barriers on a single heading. I cannot be stopped.

https://flight-viz.com/cockpit.html?lat=40.64&lon=-73.78&alt...

JumpCrisscross•1 day ago

Better call Center for your ground speed [1].

[1] https://www.thesr71blackbird.com/Aircraft/Stories/sr-71-blac...

benob•1 day ago

Space station tracking: https://flight-viz.com/cockpit.html?lat=40.64&lon=-73.78&alt...

ngriffiths•1 day ago

I think you are a little over the 250kt speed limit under 10000

diavelguru•1 day ago

did this https://flight-viz.com/cockpit.html?lat=40.64&lon=-73.78&alt... flew over Mexico then got to Antartica and it started going backwards. was hoping to get to South America. Fun!

nomel•1 day ago

If you wait long enough, it looks like things go very wrong around the poles.

diavelguru•1 day ago

yes just saw that!

jredwards•1 day ago

Oh dear.

coolwulf•5 days ago

Creator here. I posted Flight-Viz a few days ago (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47603966) and the feedback was great. Since then I added a cockpit mode that follows any liveflight with real 3D terrain.

How to try it: go to flight-viz.com, click any plane, then click "Cockpit" in the action buttons. You'll get a first-person view wit h real buildings, terrain, atmosphere, and a HUD showing altitude/speed/heading — all driven by live ADS-B data.

Hao

simooooo•1 day ago

Can you make it so "exit cockpit" navigates to a route rather than execute a back on the browser, as it takes me back to the hacker news page when I push it.

Also took me about 5 minutes to find the cockpit view button after I'd selected a flight but that might be a me problem :)

dylan604•1 day ago

Exit Cockpit disabled; No parachutes available

coolwulf•1 day ago

Thank you for the suggestion and I just modified that behavior.

dzhiurgis•about 23 hours ago

> Also took me about 5 minutes to find the cockpit view button after I'd selected a flight

Same here. Should be more prominent for a brand new feature!

croisillon•1 day ago

i came here to comment on the exit=back too

and i'd like metric measurement too

venusenvy47•about 14 hours ago

It's really cool. I'm a little unsure if the website is overloaded or my browser is not rendering it properly. If I zoom in on an area and try to click on a plane in flight, sometimes I can select a plane, but sometimes I can't. Even for a plane that I was able to select a few seconds before, if I click away and try to click again, it won't select.

coolwulf•about 14 hours ago

You need to click on the plane icon, not the label.

_HMCB_•1 day ago

This is so cool. But on iOS, clicking the plane flashes the mini modal/popup but the it immediately disappears. There no way, on touch, to keep it open long enough to click a cockpit view button, assuming there is one.

jimmydddd•1 day ago

I was able to do it on my iPhone. 1) Click on a plane on the map. 2) Click on "menu" at the bottom. 3) Scroll down to the bottom of info window and click on "cockpit."

_HMCB_•1 day ago

Whoa! That was it. I expected a more prominent button for cockpit. I actually just thought those were labels. Thanks big time.

d3Xt3r•1 day ago

Any chance of adding real-time sky and weather effects, using satellite imagery and weather data?

OSS542•about 21 hours ago

Doesn't seem to work for me. I just get star field displays no matter what I do.

hbcondo714•1 day ago

Gorgeous! I can search flights at LAX but I don't see the smaller airports around it like SNA or LGB listed. Any chance those could be added?

Also, is there by chance a way to do historical flights?

coolwulf•1 day ago

I just added smaller airport. (for now I turned off airport overlay as default since it get a little clutterd but you can turn it on. or you can search the airport code in search bar)

hbcondo714•1 day ago

Thank you!

neilv•1 day ago

Before browsers were up to this, I implemented something related, using Google Earth Plugin.

You could load up the flight data recorder data (which contains more parameters than ADS-B), and watch 3rd-person view animation of a 3D model of that aircraft's movements as it flies over terrain. With instruments, plus visual annotations of flight path over terrain.

One kludge I was proud/relieved to find: At the start of the flight, there's a zoom in to the aircraft on the ground, from the Earth view, and then a particular dance of the camera around the aircraft itself. The purpose wasn't to try to look cool at the time, but to make sure that the plugin would render the aircraft model at all, before we started to change the position or orientation of the model. (The plugin was overly aggressive about deciding some annotations weren't in the scene. Once this camera dance ritual forced the plane into the scene, it stayed in the scene, even as it moved and twisted, and as the camera moved with it.)

bigiain•1 day ago

I saw Balint Seeber demo this at Dorkbot in Sydney, which must have been in the early 2000s, definitely before he left Sydney in about 2010.

He was using live ADS-B data from an SDR, because this was way before global ADS-B websites and APIs existed.

(I wonder what he's up to these day, he was a fascinating person and presenter, and used to be a prolific blogger on interesting subjects. I also wonder what Pia van Gelder who used to run Dorkbot Sydney is up to?)

lastdong•1 day ago

This is so impressive, love it!

A bit of feedback: Clicking exit cockpit goes back to the previous page (in this case this HN thread).

Not sure if just me, but I really had to search hard for the actions under menu and the cockpit button.

grg0•1 day ago

Double-clicking on an airplane should send you to the cockpit view imo.

batisteo•1 day ago

You lucky, on Firefox mobile it does nothing.I can only see the one random flight, in this case already on the ground

RichardHesketh•5 days ago

The FlightRadar24 app has had this feature for quite some time. I like your implementation though - it’s very easy on the eye.

coolwulf•5 days ago

Thanks for letting me know. I actually didn't know about this feature in FlightRadar24 app.

culi•1 day ago

Paid feature though

paduc•about 24 hours ago

I tried to watch a plane land but the elevation/speed were wrong so it seemed like the plane went over the runway and disappeared.

Waterluvian•1 day ago

I never realized the earth actually looked like a Mode 7 SNES game from up there!

linzhangrun•1 day ago

I remember Flight Radar 64 seems to have a 3D model feature. Technically it doesn't seem difficult: you just need the corresponding aircraft model, a 3D map with satellite imagery like Google Earth as the base, and then feed in the transponder data. It's a bit like an online game.

Brajeshwar•1 day ago

Will it be possible to have a “Record” feature, say for a few minutes? Would be lovely to save videos, especially the landings.

jfoster•1 day ago

Really cool! Is this using a Google API? How is it not costing a small fortune?

dtagames•1 day ago

This is super cool! The cockpit view is the best feature. But I had trouble finding it again after picking a different plane. Maybe a dedicated button for that on the map?

Love it.

coolwulf•1 day ago

cockpit button is on the left side panel under flight details

randerson•1 day ago

I'd love if it could tell when a plane is ascending or descending and then add the last known rate of change to the simulation. Then you could watch a plane land.

grg0•1 day ago

This is great, smart application of graphics and public data.

bigfudge•1 day ago

Is it possible to pan?

Chrisszz•1 day ago

Commands are not that handy but from someone that has the flying in his heart since he was child I must admit that it's cool to have the cockpit view

rogerrogerr•1 day ago

If you go hang out at your local small airport on a weekend, I guarantee someone will give you a ride. In the US, at least.

nomel•1 day ago

You can get "introductory" flights for pretty cheap, where they let you fly a bit.

macintux•about 24 hours ago

I bought one for my father years ago as a gift, and was able to ride along. A great day.

jmakov•1 day ago

Would be nice to look around in the cockpit view. And have city names etc.

matmo•1 day ago

Would be nice to pair this with something like FlightRadar where you can see relevant flights in proximity to you and select them.

hasbot•1 day ago

This is cool. Now I can look out the cockpit of that plane that's been doing a pattern over my house for an hour.

sssilver•1 day ago

Interesting, I wonder if it would be possible to visualize the most dramatic parts of every flight -- takeoffs and landings.

igtumt•1 day ago

this is interesting and how much of the rendering/logic is running in WASM vs JS?

gorfian_robot•1 day ago

I wish it had all the small aircraft not just commercial flights

mayneack•1 day ago

Pretty sure it does https://flight-viz.com/cockpit.html?lat=34.026608&lon=-118.3...

hasbot•1 day ago

It has the university trainer airplanes near me.

metabagel•5 days ago

Perhaps this should be submitted under "Show".

wkjagt•1 day ago

Creator posted it as Show HN last week: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47603966

Current post is by someone else

mikestew•1 day ago

Current post is from the creator (not that I particularly care one way or the other):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47694065

stevage•about 23 hours ago

Is anyone actually seeing a cockpit? All I'm seeing is a moving viewpoint (no plane, no cockpit...)

I mean, it's cool, it's just not quite what I expected from "cockpit mode".

sva_•about 21 hours ago

I think it is broken now, as per the console:

    Object { statusCode: 401, response: '{"code":"INVALID_TOKEN","message":"Invalid access token"}', responseHeaders: {…} }

coolwulf•about 19 hours ago

It should be fixed now.

sva_•about 15 hours ago

Very nice. It would be sweet to get some anti-aliasing.

vixalien•1 day ago

it doesn't seem to show most flights or airports in africa

Reason077•1 day ago

Limited ADS-B receiver coverage in their data network, presumably.

dzhiurgis•about 23 hours ago

Pretty cool. IDK if it's international connectivity issue or rendering, but I'm looking at this from Auckland and cities are just so slow to render - there's so much aliasing(?) artifacts.

Also we overshot runway, then went back albeit lower and then overshot again - I suspect there's connectivity issue (or HN hug). Also data really well delayed compared to adsbexchange.

Also - maybe add a button to take you to a Random Cockpit view (perhaps one with most live viewers (and add a chat there)).

Also cockpit noise would make me feel like I'm in xplane again lol. Also wonder if macOS PIP can be implemented for now video feeds.

iJohnDoe•1 day ago

Badass! Really amazing!

coolwulf•about 18 hours ago

Now you can use mouse to change the camera during the cockpit view

Markoff•1 day ago

Cromite on Android 15 stock Pixel ROM:

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amelius•1 day ago

* except from the plane itself because wifi is broken or too expensive.

deadlinermusic•5 days ago

Love this. How do you modify the flight number?

gramie•1 day ago

If you click on a city's name, you can see a list of all flights arriving and departing. Some of the arriving ones will be in flight, and you can click on the flight number to view it, then "Cockpit" view to see (roughly) what the pilots are seeing.

sroussey•1 day ago

Won't Elon sue?