This one's for the avgeeks out there: FlightStream has compiled a shiny, twinkling visualization of worldwide flight patterns.
By tracking the filed plans of flights between airports worldwide, the site has created a beautiful view of the state of aviation on the planet via the WebGL 3D visualization protocol.
WebGL allows 3D manipulable images to be embedded within browsers without requiring any additional software installation.
The website gives users some basic controls to tweak the visualization in a way that seriously changes the view.
Speed makes the planes move faster, while size increases the diameter of the dots representing planes and track/opacity makes the plane's trajectory more visible to show the many overlaps.
The visualization is based on OpenFlights data from 6977 airports worldwide dated back to 2009.
So while it's not a real-time view of every flight on the planet, the effect is still memorable as it shows how crowded the skies are becoming. In fact, there will soon be so many airplanes worldwide that the global risk for aviation will top $1 trillion.
Here's to more flight delays to come!
FlightStream lives here.