Those magnificent men in their flying machines

July 13, 2009 5:26 AM

24 hours of worldwide air traffic movements. The video is a 24-hour observation of all large aircraft movements in the world. The position of each was recorded from the flight transponders and then condensed into a 60 second video. The result is fascinating.
posted by bap98189 (21 comments total)

I'm sorry but that video is old.
posted by krautland at 5:30 AM on July 13

I've never seen it before, and I liked it. Thanks!
posted by ixohoxi at 5:43 AM on July 13

Related: Ant mega-colony takes over world
posted by MuffinMan at 5:44 AM on July 13 [2 favorites]

Why does Madagascar always close its airport first?
posted by kuujjuarapik at 5:51 AM on July 13 [2 favorites]

Some planet I know's got a baaaaaaad case of the peoples!
posted by From Bklyn at 6:11 AM on July 13

Seems like, with all that traffic back and forth between the east coast of the US and Europe, we should dig us a damn tunnel.
posted by contessa at 6:15 AM on July 13 [1 favorite]

Psychotic, flying ape infestation.
posted by milarepa at 6:18 AM on July 13

Related: Ant mega-colony takes over world
posted by MuffinMan at 8:44 AM on July 13 [1 favorite +] [!]

Those planes look like ants from up here
posted by bitteroldman at 6:19 AM on July 13

Thus the concern about pandemics...
posted by HuronBob at 6:21 AM on July 13

Seems like, with all that traffic back and forth between the east coast of the US and Europe, we should dig us a damn tunnel.

Oh, that's just what the ants would like us to do! You happen to come from Argentina, contessa?
posted by orme at 6:31 AM on July 13

Everything is amazing, nobody is happy. You're sitting in a chair, IN THE SKY.
posted by Area Control at 6:41 AM on July 13 [5 favorites]

Old or not, I thought it was cool.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 6:41 AM on July 13

I'd like to repeat my question from the previous (non-YouTube) postof this video: what is that big Europe-to-South America route?
posted by kittyprecious at 6:45 AM on July 13

Seems like, with all that traffic back and forth between the east coast of the US and Europe, we should dig us a damn tunnel.

Transatlantic Tunnel.

I'm not sure what the chord depth of a line connecting NY and London is, but if it weren't subterranean you could do this ballisticly. Pretty sure that was described by Heinlein at one point, but I don't see it in the Wikipedia entry.
posted by DU at 6:48 AM on July 13

previously.
posted by krautland at 6:49 AM on July 13

All that carbon
posted by mattoxic at 6:52 AM on July 13

TheWhiteWire (3 days ago) 0 Reply | Spam
planes are gay

Okay I laughed at that one.
posted by geoff. at 6:56 AM on July 13

Even forgetting the tourist flights (which are pretty much unnecessary by definition), how many of those flights are needed? What happened to telecommuting?
posted by pracowity at 6:59 AM on July 13

(Also: my God, the Canary Islands are popular.)
posted by kittyprecious at 7:03 AM on July 13

I thought it was cool to see how, at the beginning, night was falling in the U.S. and tons of planes were headed for Europe. Overnight flights must be popular/make the most sense for travelers.

In fact, as morning came to Europe, it almost looked like a black hole, sucking in flights from all parts of the world.

Also cool to watch the line of dawn travel across the U.S. and see the yellow plane dots quickly become a giant blob.

The "to" and "from" Hawaii flights each seem to have their own separate paths. The "To Los Angeles" path and the "From Los Angeles" path, the "To Portland" and "From Portland" path, etc.

Very few flights over the Sahara, especially during the day. Ditto Russia.

Lots of overnight flights from Asia to Australia.

At the very beginning and very end, you can see the overnight flights leaving Europe and heading out all over the world.

Looking at the density of the dots, the cities of eastern Australia are very clear. Also India and the cities of eastern Brazil.

I guess most of these observations are "No Duh" territory, but it's still cool to see everything visualized. Cool linko! Should be required viewing for contestants of the Amazing Race.
posted by TheClonusHorror at 7:08 AM on July 13

I would have liked it better if each point of light had a hue (0 to 359) defined by the direction of its velocity. From a greater distance, routes with equal proportions of "coming and going" would have their colors cancel out, while a preponderance of coming vs. going would pop out more.
posted by adipocere at 7:16 AM on July 13