Map/Visual Design: Aaron Koblin
FEATURE: Key to Eliminating U.S. Flight Delays? Redesign the Sky Over New York City
INTERACT: Compare Unique Aircraft Flight Patterns
Two million flights pass through New York's airspace each year. Artist Aaron Koblin used images from his piece, Flight Patterns, to create a Google map representing air traffic across the United States over a 24-hour period. The map displays the flight paths for more than 205,000 aircraft the FAA tracked on August 12, 2008.
Using data provided by FlightView, a service that provides real-time air-travel information, Koblin layers flight patterns by altitude, aircraft model and manufacturer. Use the navigation on the right to toggle between each view.
Altitude: Dark colors indicate a higher altitude; lighter shades indicate takeoff and landing.
Aircraft model: Each of the 573 airplanes are represented by a unique color.
Manufacturer: Flight frequency is tracked by aircraft manufacturer.
This project was a collaboration among Aaron Koblin, FlightView and Wired Magazine.
