FlightTrack

FlightTrack puts live air traffic on a 3D globe on your desktop - every aircraft turned to its own heading, coloured by its phase of flight, straight from the OpenSky Network.

The globe is the app. Pan and zoom to any part of the sky and FlightTrack asks for exactly that window; the traffic list, the filters and the aircraft panel all read the same data, so what you see in the list is what you see on the planet.

Highlights

1. A real globe - not a flattened map. The polar routes that carry half the long-haul traffic look like the great circles they are, instead of being smeared across the top of the frame. A flat projection is one click away when you want it.
2. Aircraft that keep moving - between data refreshes each aircraft flies on at its own reported speed and heading, so the picture stays alive rather than stepping once a minute. Every number stays the number that was transmitted; only the symbol is estimated, and the panel says how old the sample is.
3. Colour by phase of flight - on the ground, below 10,000 ft, the climb and descent band, and cruise above FL280. The legend doubles as a filter: click a band to show only that traffic.
4. The full readout - callsign, ICAO24 address, country, altitude, ground speed, vertical rate, heading, squawk and position source (ADS-B, MLAT, FLARM). Emergency squawks - 7500, 7600, 7700 - are called out in the list, on the card and in the status bar.
5. A watchlist that remembers - star an aircraft and it keeps a trail on the globe and a row in the list even after it leaves the view, with the time it was last seen. Give it a name, and turn on Follow to keep it centred while it flies.
6. Search and filter - by callsign, hex address or country. Hide traffic on the ground, sort by altitude, speed, callsign or country, and hide the whole list when you just want the planet.
7. A data budget that manages itself - OpenSky gives every user a daily allowance and charges more for a wider view. On Auto, FlightTrack spaces its own refreshes to spread what is left over the rest of the day, skips requests for a view it already has, and pauses when the window is hidden or you step away. The status bar shows the spend and says when the day would run out at the current rate.
8. Native and dark - a real macOS app with a real menu bar, sized for a radar screen rather than a browser tab. No account needed, no tracking, and the traffic goes straight from OpenSky to your machine.

How it works

Open FlightTrack and the globe fills with whatever is flying. Drag to turn the planet, scroll to zoom; each time the view settles, FlightTrack fetches the aircraft inside it. Click any aircraft - on the globe or in the list - to open its card, then Centre it, Follow it, or star it to keep it.

It works with no setup at all, on OpenSky's anonymous allowance. A free OpenSky API client raises that tenfold: create one in your OpenSky account, paste the client id and secret into Settings, and press Test before saving. Your watchlist and settings live in ~/Library/Application Support/cafe.getapps.flighttrack/.

Perfect for

1. Plane spotters - point it at your local approach path and watch what is coming in, with the squawk and the descent rate right there.
2. Meeting someone at the airport - star their aircraft, name it, and the watchlist keeps its trail and its last position even when it drops out of view.
3. Anyone curious about the sky - zoom out and see the whole planet's traffic at once: the North Atlantic tracks, the Gulf hubs, the quiet oceans in between.
4. A second screen - leave it open as a live picture of the world. It pauses itself when you are not looking, so it costs you nothing while it sits there.