Flight data and Open source

Using Open Source Software for live tracking airplanes? That’s no magic. In order to avoid air-to-air collisions, most aircrafts have the obligation to use an ADS-B transponder. They must continuously send their flight parameters to air traffic controllers on the ground and to other aircrafts. With a little bit of hardware, some FOSS software and a few scripts we are able to listen to this ongoing chattering sent through the air by aircrafts in flight. We can extract their messages, understand who they are, where they are, track their flight parameters and visualize everything in real time.