Hacker News

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

133 points by coolwulf 4 days ago | 29 comments

tetris11 60 minutes 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...

diavelguru 29 minutes 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 43 minutes ago

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

diavelguru 29 minutes ago

yes just saw that!

coolwulf 4 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

_HMCB_ 2 hours 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.

lastdong 2 hours 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.

batisteo 60 minutes ago

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

grg0 47 minutes ago

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

RichardHesketh 4 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 4 days ago

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

culi 50 minutes ago

Paid feature though

sssilver 35 minutes ago

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

matmo 37 minutes ago

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

grg0 47 minutes ago

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

igtumt 30 minutes ago

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

Chrisszz 2 hours 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

nomel 41 minutes ago

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

rogerrogerr 2 hours 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.

bigfudge 3 hours ago

Is it possible to pan?

gorfian_robot 3 hours ago

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

mayneack 2 hours ago

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

vixalien 2 hours ago

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

metabagel 4 days ago

Perhaps this should be submitted under "Show".

wkjagt 2 hours ago

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

Current post is by someone else

mikestew 2 hours ago

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

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

Markoff 3 hours ago

Cromite on Android 15 stock Pixel ROM:

Error constructing CesiumWidget. Visit http://get.webgl.org to verify that your web browser and hardware support WebGL. Consider trying a different web browser or updating your video drivers. Detailed error information is below:

RuntimeError: The browser supports WebGL, but initialization failed. Error at new kL (https://cesium.com/downloads/cesiumjs/releases/1.125/Build/C...) at DEe (https://cesium.com/downloads/cesiumjs/releases/1.125/Build/C...) at new dd (https://cesium.com/downloads/cesiumjs/releases/1.125/Build/C...) at new li (https://cesium.com/downloads/cesiumjs/releases/1.125/Build/C...) at new Go (https://cesium.com/downloads/cesiumjs/releases/1.125/Build/C...) at new ji...

deadlinermusic 4 days ago

Love this. How do you modify the flight number?

gramie 53 minutes 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.