Planefinder
Time ago we used to look after airplanes at the airport. Wherever airplanes came from or where they were flying you never knew. Seemingly, we looked after airplanes when they started, wished we were sitting on the plane and we were tracking their runway until they disappeared somewhere in the sky as a small point. While they were invisible to the human eye for a long time, the planefinder had them on screen. Flying altitude, flight number and destination are essential for a smooth air traffic in the sky.
Long time ago the flightradar was a well-kept secret. Only air traffic controllers knew exactly where an airplane was located. Thanks to the Internet, no one has to take on the profession of an air traffic controller to determine the location of airplanes. This can be done comfortably via the Internet – with a mouse click, all flights can be viewed via flightracker. There are basically two approaches. You are either searching for one flight to watch or you watch all the incoming or outgoing flights of a certain airport with the planefinder.
Why is it interesting to track a flight with the Planefinder ?
Time ago when a member of the family, a friend or a colleague travelled went on a journey with the airplane, there was a kind of insecurity between take-off and landing. No one knew where the plane was exactly right now. Was it already close to the destination, has it already crossed the border, or was it right in the middle of the Atlantic. We had no choice but to guess about the current whereabouts of the flight and its occupants. The planefinder provides the information in real time. All you need is the flight number. With it you can search directly for the flight. You enter the flight number into the search field and click Start. Immediately the current position of the flight will be displayed on a virtual world map. That's how easy it is.
Flying has always fascinated people. Sometimes it is simply a hobby like photographing airplanes. So the planetracker is a great help. If you want to photograph a Ycertain airplane, you can find important information about the aircraft's flight plan via the planefinder . you can always follow your plane and with a bit of luck take a photo at a nearby airport when it’s starting or landing.
Flight movements around an airport
The modern air traffic is very dense. Large airports like Frankfurt am Main, London Heathrow, Paris CDG or New York JFK have a very high volume. Passenger and cargo aircraft start in the second phase. For outsiders, these airports look like an opaque jungle. The skyscanner helps you to understand the events better. Although a visit to the airport is by no means to be replaced, but the view of a pilot to the air traffic around an airport, you only have the air ticket.
You can see the happenings around an airport from the point of view of an air traffic controller. In this case, the planefinder offers you various possibilities depending on how you use the zoom. The closer you zoom in, the better you can follow individual flights. It shows you whether an airplane is starting or arriving. You also see where it is exactly at this moment. Is it flying over a village, a city or a fied. If you zoom out, these details become blurred. Instead the flightradar offers you a better overview of the airport and its surroundings. An overview over Europe, America or the whole world is possible.
It`s free and easy to use
Would you like to pursue a specific airplane, for example from London to New York, then you could do it like this for example. You zoom in to the airport in London to see the aircraft. After it has started, you zoom a bit out. Then you see which flight path the aircraft takes. When the plane has reached altitude and travel speed, you can zoom back and limit yourself to occasional observation. When the aircraft starts the landing maneuver in New York, you can zoom back in again to see the details of the landing.
If you want to watch aircrafts with the plane radar, you only need a PC, laptop, tablet or a smartphone. Each device must be connected to the Internet. For Tablet PC and Smartphone there are special apps. It`s free and easy to use. Whenever you see an airplane in the sky, you can quickly and easily determine which flight number the aircraft has, where it goes, and which airline it belongs to.
A fascinating discovery
Planefinder has a long and very fascinating discovery time. The history dates back to the year 1886. At this time, Heinrich Hertz was able to establish electromagnetic waves in the course of an experiment for the first time that a reflection of radio waves on metal objects is possible. In 1904, Christian Hülsmeyer began his first positioning attempts. After that, radar engeeniring fell into oblivion until the Second World War. In 1935, the Scottish physicist Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt was the first to track a flight of an airplane.
He is widely regarded as the radar discoverer. He made it possible to locate a Handley Page H.P.50 bomber. Watson-Watt continued to develop the tecnology, but also in other countries in the 1930s radar systems were developed. On February 1935, it was the first time that scientists were able to track an aircraft for up to 13 kilometres.
Radar after 1945
With the end of the war the research around the flightradar was frozen. By 1950 the operation had been banned even by the Allied forces. After 1950, there was a great variety of studies in the US, including semiconductors and microprocessors, including the Synthetic Aperture Radar. At this time, it was used as standard equipment on board of civil aircrafts.
Flight radar in the present
There are a number of important tasks for the radar in the present too. It used for a wide range of applications. Often used for safety and early detection. For airplanes there are also a number of applications, including the panoramic view for air traffic monitoring - stationary as flight safety. In addition, planefinder are being used to pursue targets for aerial surveillance. Another area of application is the airborneradar. In the so-called "radarnose", there can be detected weather fronts or other aircrafts as well as rockets for early warning.
