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Zoom closer to see buildings
Ground detail brings you closer to buildings; coverage varies. Paths use recorded observations, with live ends following smoothed aircraft motion.
Select an aircraft to see its observed path.
Awaiting provider timestamp
No matching aircraft. Try N300CAT, CAT101, Phenom, EMB-505, STL, or Naples.
Select a style, then confirm. Zoom to 5 NM or closer for streets and cities. Detailed maps need an internet connection.
Night works offline. Other styles require internet.
Vector place labels stay crisp as you zoom. The Labels switch controls map, airport and aircraft labels. Raster fallback labels cannot be switched off.
Authoritative FAA aeronautical reference layers. Off by default for a clean map. Zoom requirements prevent large nationwide downloads.
Reference only · not for navigation or flight planning.
Loading airport catalog…
Airport markers load with the map.
Choose a layer
Identify nearby aircraft by pointing your phone at the sky.
Sky View uses your camera, location and compass to place nearby aircraft in your view. Open it outdoors with a clear view of the sky.
Your browser will ask for camera, location and motion access when you continue. Aircraft positions and compass alignment may be approximate.
Choose an airport-to-airport route to replay. Incomplete observations are kept under Partial tracks.
Optional: enter airport codes to label this flight. These are your estimates, not verified destinations; they do not change the recorded trajectory.
Source-reported altitude; not height above terrain. Replay interpolates between nearby recorded points.
Camera, location and motion access are requested only when you open Sky View.
3D Flight Replay uses available recorded tracks. The 3D Globe shows live traffic within its marked coverage area.
The aircraft you chose for your hangar. See what’s flying and follow your fleet together.
Only aircraft observed airborne appear on the map. Trails build from recent observations while My Hangar is open. Missing coverage does not mean an aircraft is parked.
Your existing favorites have been kept. The Free plan now allows 25 aircraft and 4 airports. Remove extras before saving another in that category.
Save up to 25 aircraft on the Free plan. Saved aircraft can be reopened or looked up when available.
No favorite aircraft yet.
Save up to 4 airports on the Free plan. Favorite an airport from its map card for one-tap return.
No favorite airports yet.
A separate fleet for the aircraft you choose to follow together.
Your hangar is empty. Choose “Move to My Hangar” on an aircraft favorite to add it here.
Moving an aircraft removes it from aircraft Favorites and turns off its favorite alerts. You can move it back at any time.
Switch alerts on for any saved aircraft. CAT reports observed takeoffs, landings and an airborne update at most every 15 minutes.
Keep CAT open and the aircraft in the current live view. Alerts pause when CAT is hidden, closed or the feed stops updating. Missing coverage can hide a departure or arrival.
Browser permission is optional. In-app alerts appear here while CAT is open.
No live alerts this session.
25 saved aircraft
25 separate My Hangar aircraft
4 saved airports
Live 2D map & available 2D history
3 free 3D uses & 3 Flight Deck uses
No account needed to try them
2 FAA overlays at once
Live-view aircraft notifications
100 saved aircraft
100 separate My Hangar aircraft
25 saved airports
Live 3D & recorded 3D playback
Unlimited Sky View & Flight Deck sessions
All available FAA overlays together
Coming soon: custom trails & aircraft styling
Coming to Premium: higher-quality weather
Background notifications planned
Try 3 live or recorded 3D views and 3 Flight Deck sessions on this browser without an account. Premium includes unlimited access and Sky View. Premium pricing: $3.99/month or $29.99/year. Compare plans & review Premium →
Favorites and My Hangar are stored on this device. Premium follows your verified CAT account.
ADSB.lol supplies aircraft positions within the displayed coverage circle. FAA feeds enrich airport and flight information. Categories filter the loaded aircraft immediately.
Best-effort classification from available ADS-B emitter category, aircraft type and callsign data. Unknown aircraft remain under All aircraft.
Radar, airport conditions and forecast planning in one workspace.
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Choose the map center or an airport.
Radar remains on the aircraft map. Load surface conditions here when you want the forecast details.
METAR / TAF: NOAA / NWS Aviation Weather Center
Official aviation weather data displayed for situational awareness. CAT is not a flight briefing or dispatch product and does not replace an approved aviation-weather source.
Active and scheduled TFR notices from the FAA Graphic TFR service. Always verify the underlying NOTAM before operational use.
Load the Planning Center to retrieve current FAA TFRs.
Weather is unavailable until an observed source is selected.
The demo contains six artificial frames. Live radar uses the NOAA / NWS time-enabled MRMS base-reflectivity service; it requires internet and is not a flight briefing product.
Reference data, not an airport status report or navigation source.
Open to load FAA facility, runway, frequency, ILS and procedure information.
Not loaded.
CAT checks the exact registration first, then falls back to an aircraft-type reference.
Observed ADS-B activity from the recent archive. Airport names are matched to the nearest observed takeoff/landing area when the track supports it. Tap a flight to view its recorded path on the map.
WHY CENTRAL AVIATION TRACKING
Explore aircraft, discover airports, and see flight information in context—without losing the big picture.
Live aircraft tracking · ADS-B observations · interactive aviation map
A MORE CONSIDERED WAY TO EXPLORE
Explore maps and airport details without losing your place.
Go deeper with live aircraft details, type-matched reference photography, airport context, and observed flight information.
Choose your map layers and save the aircraft you want to return to.
Source timestamps, credited imagery, and clear limits on what the data can tell you.
WHY WE’RE BUILDING CAT
We’re building an independent aviation platform around clarity and useful context. A place for people who want to understand the aircraft, airports, and activity that connect our world.
CAT is for informational and entertainment use only. Do not use it for navigation, flight planning, aircraft operation, collision avoidance, weather avoidance, or emergency decisions. Aircraft positions, weather, FAA layers, alerts, and 3D views may be delayed, incomplete, estimated, or inaccurate. Use current official aviation sources and required briefings for operational decisions.
TERMS & SAFETY
CAT is provided “as is” and “as available,” without a guarantee of accuracy, completeness, uninterrupted service, or fitness for a particular purpose. Missing traffic, weather, or alerts does not mean conditions are safe.
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, CAT and its operator disclaim liability for loss, injury, or damage arising from use of, inability to use, or reliance on the service. This does not exclude liability or rights that the law does not allow to be excluded.
Read Terms & ConditionsFREE & PREMIUM
Free includes the live 2D map, available 2D history, 25 saved aircraft, 4 airports and two FAA overlays together. Try 3 live or recorded 3D views and 3 Flight Deck sessions per browser without an account. Premium includes unlimited access, Sky View and larger saved lists. Both use the same available aircraft data.
Coming to Premium: custom trails, aircraft styling and higher-quality weather. These updates are planned, not included yet.
Compare Free & Premium →Map detail is provided by OpenFreeMap, using OpenMapTiles and OpenStreetMap data. CAT adapts the map styling; credit for the underlying geography remains with its contributors.
Satellite imagery: Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics and contributing providers. Atlas references: NASA Earth Observatory and GSHHG/GMT. Photographs retain their own credit and licence alongside each image.
THE CONTEXT BEHIND THE VIEW
A clear view starts with knowing what you’re looking at. Here are the providers, references, and limits behind CAT.
Aircraft observations come from ADSB.lol, under the Open Database License (ODbL 1.0). Queries cover a circle around the viewed area, up to 250 nautical miles in radius; they are not a complete worldwide traffic feed. Receiver coverage, delayed messages and missing fields limit what can be shown.
CAT requests updates approximately every 15 seconds while this map is visible. That is a request interval, not a guarantee of provider update speed. Source timestamps determine position age. Positions older than 60 seconds are marked stale; after 120 seconds they are removed. Map symbols use a five-second presentation buffer and short, bounded prediction for smooth movement. An estimated symbol is not a new observation: prediction stops after at most 12 seconds beyond its latest sample on the display clock, and is capped at 2 NM. Selected symbols disclose smoothing or prediction. Telemetry and flight logs keep the original recorded positions and timestamps. Helicopter rotor animation is decorative, not measured RPM. Reduced Motion disables these animations.
Only tracks collected in the current browser session are drawn. The latest snapshot replaces the previous query. At world zoom, most of the world is outside the queried circle. Aircraft without recent coordinates are not plotted; no result is not proof of no traffic. API availability and rate limits can change. CAT does not promise complete coverage or uninterrupted updates.
Optional map layers use public FAA Aeronautical Information Services / Aeronautical Data Delivery Service geospatial feeds for class airspace, airspace boundaries, special-use airspace, ATS routes, designated points, NAVAIDs, runways, ILS systems, holding patterns, military training routes, obstacle data, UAS facility-map data, and airway changeover points. These reference layers are off by default and requested only for the visible map area.
CAT does not currently consume FAA aircraft-specific SWIM flight-track services. The FAA open-data layers in this build are aeronautical reference data rather than aircraft flight records.
The Weather Planning Center retrieves active and scheduled records from the FAA Graphic TFR export. TFR summaries are context only; operational users must verify the underlying FAA NOTAM and official briefing sources.
U.S. airport cards can retrieve FAA AIS facility records, runways, related radio frequencies and nearby ILS records through FAA ADDS. Current terminal-procedure links are retrieved from the FAA Digital Terminal Procedures Publication (d-TPP) search service. These records describe aviation infrastructure and published procedures, not individual aircraft movements.
Current METAR observations and available TAF forecasts are requested server-side from AviationWeather.gov. CAT selects a nearby reporting station, preserves the provider observation time, and uses Netlify durable caching to reduce repeat requests.
Observed map radar uses the NOAA / NWS time-enabled MRMS base-reflectivity service. Weather is off by default and only loads when selected. Missing or unavailable government weather is shown as unavailable rather than replaced with simulated data. CAT remains an informational display, not a flight briefing or dispatch product.
Aircraft models and type-matched photographs are reference visuals; a livery or registration may differ. Map areas, aircraft lookup values and weather locations are sent to CAT’s hosting provider and the relevant data provider; do not enter personal data in those searches. Profile details, photos and favorites remain in this browser. Email-based accounts use the separate CAT account page. Name, email and password hashes are stored in the account database; Resend delivers account messages. Favorites and profile extras remain on this device. Premium access is tied to a verified account and payment when checkout is available. Stripe processes subscriptions. Cloud synchronization and notifications while CAT is closed are not available. Read the Privacy Notice.
Detailed vector maps use OpenFreeMap with OpenMapTiles and OpenStreetMap data, rendered by MapLibre GL JS. Map credits are available from the compact control in the lower-left corner and at the bottom of Why CAT.
Online maps need internet access and WebGL. The embedded atlas or raster tiles remain labeled fallbacks when detailed vector resources are unavailable.
Satellite and hybrid layers use Esri World Imagery, with credits to Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics, and contributing providers. The bundled world atlas retains NASA Earth Observatory imagery and GSHHG/GMT geography from the earlier CAT build.
These layers are geographic references, not live aerial observations. Imagery dates and resolution vary.
The worldwide airport directory loads reference data from OurAirports. A small bundled reference list remains available when the full directory has not loaded. The interface reports its actual catalog status.
Facility records can be incomplete or out of date. A marker is not confirmation that an airport is open, suitable for a particular aircraft, or available for use.
The 3D wireframe is original, generic business-jet geometry—not manufacturer CAD, a maintenance inspection, or sensed aircraft state.
The Airport Photo view uses Coldstreamer20’s N780TW - KHPN - 4-10-23, a Gulfstream G650ER reference photograph at Westchester County Airport. The photograph is unmodified and displayed scaled to fit. It is not a photograph of the selected simulated flight.
Profile details, resized profile pictures, favorites, and preferences are saved only in this browser when storage is available. There is no connected sign-in, cloud account, payment processing, or background notification service.
Public map, airport, and photo providers receive the network requests needed to load their content. Clearing browser data removes locally saved preferences; avoid storing private contact details on a shared device.
Central Aviation Tracking is a map-first flight tracker built to make live aircraft activity easier to explore. Search an aircraft by registration, callsign, model, airport, or city; inspect observed ADS-B position data; save aircraft and airports; and place precipitation radar in context with live traffic.
CAT keeps the aviation map at the center of the experience. Aircraft markers show observed traffic while airport information, aircraft photography, weather layers, favorites, and available historical observations add context without pretending that unavailable data is known.
Whether you are following a business jet, checking activity near an airport, exploring commercial traffic, or learning what is flying overhead, CAT provides a fast interactive view designed for desktop and mobile browsers.