API access

[tomw]

Hi all,

Just found this site and I'm very impressed! Is the flight data used on the site from a public API of some kind as this would be a great feature to use for rich internet apps.

Any info on this would be great as the possiblities for working with this data would be very interesting.

cheers!

[Mike]

Hi, the flight data is comes from ADS-B receivers around the world. You can read more about how it works on http://www.flightradar24.com/about.php
We do not offer any API access to this data.

[tomw]

OK, thanks for the info.

Bit of a shame that the data is just limited to your google map - as I'm sure many other sites / companies would pay for the access to the live data to display in their own setup / visuals (maybe a live flight iphone app for example). Anyways still a great use of data on your site, weirdly captivating to watch!

cheers

[CharlieLima]

OK, thanks for the info.

Bit of a shame that the data is just limited to your google map - as I'm sure many other sites / companies would pay for the access to the live data to display in their own setup / visuals (maybe a live flight iphone app for example). Anyways still a great use of data on your site, weirdly captivating to watch!

cheers

There are some sites that have the same map as Flightradar24 are hosting on their page. For example the airport in Vilnius, Lithuania and Kramfors, Sweden have this kind of map.

There are also plans for an iPod/iPhone App but I don't know how far this plans have come.

[tomw]

thanks for the links, after checking them out i'm guessing that its just the same flightradar24 map in an iframe or something (says that the site provide this as a service).

The idea that I was thinking of would be live source of the data without the map so it could be manipulated into a different system (like a 3d version of the flight locations over a given area, as altitude is provided as well as geo-location).

Tracing out the site calls it looks like the live data is fed in via xml call (http://www.flightradar24.com/_xml/plane_data3.php), would this be something that could be used by a third party (as its doesn't require any secure authorisation). Let me know if using this would be over the line i'm not looking to step on any toes if I was to use this .

Thanks again to all for the responses.

[orangefunk]

I agree about the usefulness of such an API. I am involved in research into flight efficiency/safety aspects and work with many aerospace companies. Could it be that live data (or even large sets of logged data) could be made available on a private basis?

Best regards
Neil

[twisig]

Hi,
So, impossible to use your data?
Thanks

[Anmer]

A large amount of the data displayed in FR24 is uploaded free of charge from those of us who have invested time and a not inconsiderable amount of money in our ModeS receivers.

I'm sure many would not take too kindly to seeing their data used elsewhere, without permission, possibly for the commercial benefit of others.

AirNav Systems "collects" data from its customers, without permission, and sells it back as a shared network. This angers many AirNav customers who then find ways to stop uploading data to the AirNav server.

FR24 survives on the goodwill of fellow aviation enthusiasts who may withdraw their data if they thought it was being used elsewhere. Just my personal opinion.

[Mike]

There are several users sharing with FR24 who expressed a wish that their data is not used outside FR24. For others it's OK. Right now we cannot divide the data into free to use and not free. Maybe we can arrange that in the future.

[delcomp]

Totally Agree.!

A large amount of the data displayed in FR24 is uploaded free of charge from those of us who have invested time and a not inconsiderable amount of money in our ModeS receivers.

I'm sure many would not take too kindly to seeing their data used elsewhere, without permission, possibly for the commercial benefit of others.

AirNav Systems "collects" data from its customers, without permission, and sells it back as a shared network. This angers many AirNav customers who then find ways to stop uploading data to the AirNav server.

FR24 survives on the goodwill of fellow aviation enthusiasts who may withdraw their data if they thought it was being used elsewhere. Just my personal opinion.

With your last paragraph.,I would go so far as to say.:

FR24 survives on the goodwill of fellow aviation enthusiasts who would withdraw their data if they thought it was being used elsewhere. Just our personal opinion

[Charky]

Speaking for myself it would be ok, if the money earned is used by FR24 to sponsor receivers and to cover the running cost for the servers and the page.

[Anmer]

I don't disagree, my concern is if my data was used, without permission, by others (not FR24) who would gain a benefit.

[woody]

I am a developer on various computer platforms and when I heard about flightrader24 I got really excited about the possibility of getting access to that data and its potential. If the data was released undersome sort of non-commercial licence, which is easily possible with API keys, why would the fellow data suppliers get angry and pull their data? Surely the data contributors put their data in to help fellow enthusiasts and I fail to understand how opening up the data feed could hurt them. If anything, it is the opposite situation. If the data feed was opened, then those fellow aviation enthusiasts you talk about could be the people accessing the data and creating even more interesting representations of the data. I can understand contributors getting angry if companies are benefiting off their hard work and I support that view. However if the data feed was released under the appropriate licence the only valid reason I can see for not making the data feed public is that it will increase the bandwidth and therefore the running cost of the site. If the owners of flightrader24 believe this will cause problems then I can understand. Other than that though I believe opening up the feed to non-commercial developers will only benefit the community.

Anmer, Mike and delcomp it would be great to hear your views on this.

[Anmer]

My position is quite clear. I would not be too happy if the data I uploaded to FR24 were distributed, without my prior permission, to a third party, especially if that third party were to gain a commercial benefit, directly or indirectly.

So, in summary, I'm not against further use of my data, as long as I know how and where it's being used and my prior permission is obtained. But I suspect, like me, those who feed FR24 also use their receiver software as the primary application, such as Basestation, RadarBox, PlanePlotter and/or Aurora.

[Admin]

We have almost 150 people sharing their data with FR24. So in this case actually my, Anmers or delcomps opinion is not so interesting, if there are lots of users who don't want their data to appear outside of FR24. Right now we are working on several new features asked by FR24 users, but there is a possibility that sometime in the future we will look at API, but that is far in the future. And first we must ask every person sharing about their permission. I can't promise anything about the future, but for now there is NO API available.