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LIVE AIRSPACE MONITOR

SKY SPY

See what's flying above you right now.

Triangulating Local Signals

Tapping below asks your browser for precise GPS coordinates. We use them only in memory to query nearby aircraft via Airplanes.live and OpenSky Network. Coordinates are never stored or linked to your identity. See our privacy policy.

Audio Init

Calibration Required

Systems require a hardware handshake to synchronize ambient sonar engines.

About this experiment

Sky Spy — live overhead flight tracker

A free ADS-B radar that tells you what is flying directly above you, right now — in the browser and on iPhone.

Sky Spy is a free, real-time flight tracker built around the question every window-gazer has asked: what plane is that? Tap Scan Airspace, share your location, and within a few seconds a tactical radar shows every aircraft broadcasting within 5–50 km of you, pulled from live Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) feeds.

The result is an air-traffic radar tuned for civilians: callsigns, flight numbers, aircraft type and registration, altitude, ground speed, heading, airline logos, origin and destination airports, and a photo of the exact airframe — all stitched together from open data and presented in a minimal heads-up display.

Official iOS App

Sky Spy — What's Above Me

Take it on the go — smoother performance, native haptics, and instant access from your home screen.

📲 Native Haptics⚡ Instant Launch🔒 Works Offline
Download on theApp Store

How it works

When you tap Scan Airspace, the browser asks your device for GPS coordinates. Those coordinates are never written to a database and never tied to an identity. Sky Spy turns them into a small bounding box and races several public ADS-B networks — adsb.one, adsb.lol and adsb.fi, with the OpenSky Network as a fallback — taking whichever answers first.

Each contact is placed on the radar at its true distance and bearing, matched against a 1,400-airline ICAO logo dictionary, and rotated with your phone's compass where supported. Tap any blip for a flight card with route (from adsbdb), aircraft photo (from Planespotters.net), live telemetry, and wind and outside air temperature when the aircraft reports them. The radar refreshes automatically every 45 seconds.

Sky Spy on iPhone and iPad

The native iOS app, Sky Spy — What's Above Me, uses the same data with a compass-driven radar that turns as you turn, so you can point your phone at a plane and identify it. It adds haptics, VoiceOver labels, Dynamic Type, and an adaptive two-pane layout on iPad and iPhone Duo. Like the web version, it is free with no account and no ads.

What it is not

Sky Spy is a hobbyist tool, not a flight-safety product. ADS-B feeds occasionally miss military, private, or out-of-coverage aircraft. Treat results as best-effort. Do not use Sky Spy for navigation, traffic separation, or any decision where lives or property depend on completeness of data.

UFO mode

A second theme ("UFO mode") repaints the HUD in electric yellow and re-labels the interface for fictional deep-space contacts. It is purely visual — no fake aircraft are injected. Toggle it for a more cinematic plane-spotting session.

Frequently asked questions

How can I see what plane is flying above me right now?
Open Sky Spy and tap Scan Airspace. It uses your location to pull live ADS-B data for every aircraft broadcasting within your chosen range (5–50 km) and plots them on a radar. Tap a blip to see the flight number, airline, aircraft type, route and altitude.
Is Sky Spy free?
Yes. Sky Spy is free on the web and on iPhone and iPad, with no account, no sign-up and no ads.
Is there a Sky Spy app for iPhone?
Yes. Sky Spy — What’s Above Me is a native app on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. It adds a compass-driven radar that turns with your phone, haptics and VoiceOver support.
Where does Sky Spy get its flight data?
From public ADS-B networks run by volunteer receiver owners: adsb.one, adsb.lol and adsb.fi, with the OpenSky Network as a fallback. Routes come from adsbdb and aircraft photos from Planespotters.net.
How is Sky Spy different from Flightradar24?
Flightradar24 is a global map of all air traffic. Sky Spy only shows what is near you, on a radar centred on your position, so it answers one question fast: what is that plane overhead? It needs no account and has no paid tier.
Does Sky Spy store my location?
No. Your coordinates are only used to ask the flight data providers for aircraft in a small box around you. They are never tied to an account or saved to a database.
Why can’t I see some planes, like military or small aircraft?
Aircraft only appear if they broadcast ADS-B and a ground receiver near you picks them up. Some military and private aircraft don’t broadcast, and low-flying aircraft can be out of receiver range.
Does it work on a desktop without GPS?
Yes. If precise GPS is unavailable, Sky Spy falls back to a coarse IP-based location so you still get a usable view of nearby traffic.

Flight data: adsb.one, adsb.lol, adsb.fi and the OpenSky Network. Routes: adsbdb. Photos: Planespotters.net. Airline logo dictionary compiled by Vishva Variya from public ICAO registries. All telemetry is read-only.

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