Airloom – 3D Flight Tracker • Hacker News Board

Re: Airloom – 3D Flight Tracker

#11

Post by nja » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 9:03 PM UTC

kyusan0 wrote: post #5

whizzter wrote: post #2

This is quite cool, seeing taking off planes appearing and rising is cool. Some comments: - Is the Up axis correctly scaled? The ascent rate of planes taking off seems very steep - Planes landing seems to get "stuck" at the beginning of a lane at about 600 feet (tracking/radar cutoff?), maybe a fix the that slightly adjusts it to ground in a landed state if a plane "stops" or disappears from the data tracking.

Down at the bottom of the menu there's an altitude scale slider. It defaults to 1.2, changing it to 1.0 makes the trails look better.

It's amusing that changing the altitude scale doesn't reset the "trails" -- when I dragged it around quickly (on mobile) it left vertical streaks behind all the in-flight planes

Re: Airloom – 3D Flight Tracker

#12

Post by benlimner » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 9:07 PM UTC

Note from the developer:

I’m so glad that many of you like this app. I’m a solo dev, actively building between my 9-5 and raising a 9mo.

Please follow along on X https://x.com/benlimner, or join the mailing list for updates/suggestions!

Re: Airloom – 3D Flight Tracker

#13

Post by benlimner » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 9:07 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #9

I love this, and would pay for native or electron app on Mac. Like Google Earth for global airspace.

Working on it!

Re: Airloom – 3D Flight Tracker

#14

Post by benlimner » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 9:07 PM UTC

nja wrote: post #11

kyusan0 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Down at the bottom of the menu there's an altitude scale slider. It defaults to 1.2, changing it to 1.0 makes the trails look better.

It's amusing that changing the altitude scale doesn't reset the "trails" -- when I dragged it around quickly (on mobile) it left vertical streaks behind all the in-flight planes

I’ll fix that.

Re: Airloom – 3D Flight Tracker

#15

Post by benlimner » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 9:09 PM UTC

echelon wrote: post #4

This is really freaking cool. Two asks - (1) you should default to a busy airport, eg. Atlanta, which is the busiest in the world. They have an order of magnitude more flights landing and departing. It seems random, but I keep getting New Orleans which is 10-20x less busy than Atlanta. ATL, SFO, LAX, ... That said, the topographically diverse places like Anchorage are nice too, and the height maps on the textures are…

I’m actively looking for a better map tile provider here.

You’re getting New Orleans because it’s truly selecting from ~20 random US airports.

Stoked that you like the app!

Re: Airloom – 3D Flight Tracker

#16

Post by benlimner » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 9:10 PM UTC

echelon wrote: post #10

hazelnut wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

interesting, seems to be random. I've gotten Portland which was also not too busy but nevertheless enough to understand the beauty of it.

This thing is dangerous. It's going to nerd snipe me into a new hobby. https://imgur.com/a/264P9Q4 It looks completely accurate. I could see the medivac helicopters taking off, and it matched 1:1. I missed a biplane flying over the city. And some other low-flying planes circling mysteriously. If I had a telephoto lens and a way to alert myself of large planes flying low (happens frequently), C-130s, F-22s, etc. I thi…

No, lean in! Haha

I’m looking into adding better data providers so there are fewer missing planes.

Re: Airloom – 3D Flight Tracker

#17

Post by benlimner » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 9:13 PM UTC

hazelnut wrote: post #8

echelon wrote: post #4

This is really freaking cool. Two asks - (1) you should default to a busy airport, eg. Atlanta, which is the busiest in the world. They have an order of magnitude more flights landing and departing. It seems random, but I keep getting New Orleans which is 10-20x less busy than Atlanta. ATL, SFO, LAX, ... That said, the topographically diverse places like Anchorage are nice too, and the height maps on the textures are…

interesting, seems to be random. I've gotten Portland which was also not too busy but nevertheless enough to understand the beauty of it.

It’s a random assortment of ~20 US cities. I’m happy to add another one into the mix if you’d like.

If there’s an airport you want to default to, search for it and save the URL

Re: Airloom – 3D Flight Tracker

#18

Post by benlimner » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 9:13 PM UTC

xgulfie wrote: post #6

Wow, great idea well executed, congrats

Ty

Re: Airloom – 3D Flight Tracker

#19

Post by benlimner » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 9:14 PM UTC

vibrio wrote: post #7

As a bit of a Flight Aware addict, well done.

Curious, what would make you default to this tool over FA?

Re: Airloom – 3D Flight Tracker

#20

Post by leptons » Fri, Nov 28, 2025, 9:24 PM UTC

benlimner wrote: post #19

vibrio wrote: post #7

As a bit of a Flight Aware addict, well done.

Curious, what would make you default to this tool over FA?

I use Flightaware for detailed information about specific flights. They have tons of information about the history of the flight, past delays, etc. I use it to track specific incoming flights when I have to pick up someone from the airport. I keep an eye on it when I'm waiting to fly, and I also use it to see progress of the flight while I'm in the air if the airline doesn't provide that in a seat-back screen.

While your site is pretty cool, it's more of a neat thing to look at than it is a useful tool like Flightaware. That said, I bookmarked it and will visit it often (probably) as I live near an airport and can see planes in the distance. Also, I second the request for higher-resolution map tiles.