About Hey, What’s Flying?

Hey, What’s Flying? answers one question as clearly as possible: what is in the air over the United States right now?

What we show

A live national snapshot of air traffic, built for curiosity. It covers how many aircraft are airborne, how they spread across altitudes, which types are most common, the highest and fastest, any emergency squawks, and the unusual ones worth a look. Around that live view sit guides, a glossary, squawk code explainers and 74 aircraft type pages, so a number on the screen always comes with an explanation.

Where the data comes from

Positions come from the community ADS-B network of airplanes.live. Thousands of volunteers run receivers that pick up the signals aircraft broadcast, and the network shares that data unfiltered. Our server fetches a snapshot of the US region (24°–50°N, 125°–66°W) every few seconds and caches it. Your browser asks our server for an update about every 15 seconds, and only while the tab is visible.

Our sister sites

heywhatsabove.com is the local version: it uses your location to show what is flying over you. We are the national, right-now view. The same network also runs skytrackgame.com, skytrackcollect.com and planedeck.net, which are games built on real aircraft.

Accuracy and limits

ADS-B data is broadcast by the aircraft itself and received by volunteers. It can be delayed, incomplete or occasionally wrong. Coverage is thin over oceans, deserts and mountains, and some aircraft don’t broadcast at all. This site is for curiosity and education only, never for navigation or safety decisions.

Contact

Found a data problem or a mistake in a guide? The aircraft data belongs to the airplanes.live community, so data issues are best raised there. For this site, see the contact details on airplanes.live.