Entirely. These are public radio broadcasts, the same flights overhead every plane-spotter with a scanner has logged for decades.

Tinfoil Pigeons — what plane is flying over my house?

Q: What plane is that?

Tap it on the scope. We show the type, operator, registration, altitude, speed, heading, and how far it is from your roof.

Q: Why does a flight have no route?

ADS-B does not broadcast origin or destination — route databases only know scheduled flights. Private, training and military traffic often has no flight plan on file.

A live radar of the aircraft above you.

Enter a postcode, town, or city — anywhere in the world — or use your location, and see the aircraft overhead right now. Tap one to find out what it is.

CONTACT LEDGER

YOUR SPOTTER'S LOG

RANGE (NM)

10 25 50 100

OFF STILL SHOWS MILITARY CONTACTS — IT JUST STOPS THEM SHOWING OFF.

OFF KEEPS THE SCOPE CLEAN — HOVER OR TAP A BLIP FOR ITS TAG.

SWEEP (SECONDS)

4 8 12

A SOFT BLIP WHEN SOMETHING NEW ENTERS THE SCOPE.

LOCATEPOSTCODE OR GPS. WE DON'T KEEP EITHER.
SCANTHE SWEEP FINDS EVERYTHING BROADCASTING.
TAPINTERROGATE ANY BLIP FOR ITS FULL FILE.

ABOUT THE OPERATION

You heard a jet. You looked up. You asked the eternal question: what plane is flying over my house? Tinfoil Pigeons answers it. Every airliner, cargo hauler, helicopter and suspiciously quiet turboprop broadcasts its position over ADS-B, and our scope listens. Enter a UK postcode or use your location and the flights overhead appear as blips, swept four seconds at a time, exactly where they really are.

Tap any blip and we pull its file: aircraft type, airline, registration, and — when one is on record — where it came from and where it's going. No app, no account, no charge. Just you, the sky, and the truth they paint green.

QUESTIONS CIVILIANS ASK

WHAT PLANE IS THAT?

Tap it. The scope locks a reticle and opens the file: type, operator, registration, altitude, speed, heading, and how far it is from your roof. If it's military we'll say so, quietly.

WHAT PLANE IS FLYING OVER MY HOUSE RIGHT NOW?

Scan from your postcode and look at the middle of the dial. You're the pulsing dot. Anything inside the first ring is, in the technical sense, overhead. Wave if you like. They can't see you. Probably.

HOW DOES IT KNOW?

Aircraft transponders broadcast position, altitude and identity over ADS-B. A worldwide network of enthusiasts with aerials on their sheds feeds airplanes.live, and we draw it on a cathode ray tube because frankly it looks better this way.

WHY DOES A FLIGHT HAVE NO ROUTE?

ADS-B doesn't broadcast origin or destination — route databases only know scheduled flights. Private jets, trainers, helicopters and the military often have no flight plan on file. We call those mystery pigeons, and we respect them.

IS THIS LEGAL?

Entirely. These are public radio broadcasts, the same flights overhead that every plane-spotter with a scanner has logged since the seventies. We just gave it a better screen.

ARE THE BIRDS REAL?

NO COMMENT.