Re:AR Planes: Discover nearby planes in augmented reality
by calstephens on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @09:28AM
(#16316364)
Hi, I made AR Planes and I have a few follow-up questions. Could you email me at [email protected] so we can chat some?
Thanks! Cal
1. It's not a new concept, both the Planefinder and FR24 apps already have an AR point-and-tell mode on Android and iOS. The main difference is that this app seems to draw an orientated cartoon of each aircraft by type.
2. What is its back-end data feed? From Planefinder or FlightAware APIs perhaps? Without knowing that we can't determine what aircraft will appear, though I suspect it's only going to work for aircraft which transmit full ADS-B output ( large airliners & really expensive modern smaller aircraft )
3. In fact there's very little information about it at all. So it's not clear if it supports FLARM ( gliders ), PilotAware ( small private aircraft ) or Mode-S Multilateration. Does it implement the FAA's BARR list to elide corporate aircraft?
I don't intend to sound critical but being in this 'space' as a feeder to several tracking networks I've seen layperson friends rush-out to try these sort of apps and then become disappointed because they don't show the Cessna in which their son is doing his flight-training.
Addendum: also irritating that it displays the flight plan using the IATA three-letter codes. No-one files a plan using those, and they only cover a small proportion of all airfields.