Flight Radar 24, the app for av geeks. What it is and how it works
I remember very well the first time I traveled alone by plane: it was 2010, I was little more than [...]
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I remember very well the first time I traveled alone by air: it was 2010, I was little more than a child, and I was aboard a beautiful MD-82 by Sundial headed to Rome. I remember my mom's recommendations equally well: "be careful"; "listen to the flight attendants"; "always keep your seat belt on"; and, most importantly, "call me immediately as soon as the plane's undercarriage touches the tarmac."
Photo: Civil Aviation
We are talking, now, about a lifetime ago and a completely different world: a world in which legions of parents anxiously awaited a sign of life from their children on the road. Now, however, thanks to social media and especially to FlightRadar24, moms and dads can breathe a sigh of relief even when their child does not send them a message.
What is it and how does it work?
For the few who are not yet familiar with it, FlightRadar24 is a website - started in 2006 by two aviation enthusiasts - that offers free Real-time flight tracking. The tracking is derived from the signals transmitted by the transponder of aircraft: Flight Radar coverage is provided by a network of volunteers using devices capable of picking up transponder signals, which transmit on the 1090MHz frequency.
What is Flight Radar used for?
Not only flight tracking: through the website (and app), the database can be accessed and the flight history of a particular aircraft and you have the opportunity, in addition, to see the 10 most watched flights in the world; if you then decide to subscribe, you will even have the opportunity to check the age of an aircraft and the Squawk code (4-digit numerical code assigned to each flight by air traffic control).
If you are an av geek, you can't not have it in your smartphone
In short: Flight Radar is the favorite app of av geeks from all over the world. Enthusiasts who, as can be guessed, use it not only to check that their friends or relatives have arrived at their destination safely: there are those who, for example, use it to follow the VIP private jets; those who exploit it to follow the military flights (just to name one, last Saturday thousands of people traced the Falcon 900 of the Italian Air Force that brought Chico Forti back to Italy.); and those, finally, who use it to track particular flights or aircraft (for The first commercial flight powered entirely by SAF, for example, FlightRadar sent a notification and in a short time became the world's most watched flight with tens of thousands of users logged on to track it).
Not just entertainment. Flight Radar, in fact, has proved useful in several investigations: in both the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 Flight Radar was used to reconstruct the track.
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