Flightradar24.com - MLAT feeds

[orionsbelt]

Seems FR24.com is now displaying Mil traffic via MLAT ?? feed.

Was watching F15s playing off Great Yarmouth the other day ( 554 knts 15000 feet )and HS 125 flight off the east coast. Think its still under test for UK.
Take a look working day next week.

Good Idea?????
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[sunnybunny]

yeah, watched them having fun for a while. Interesting to see how one displayed reg number while the other didn't.

Had a pair of something swept wing fly over my house at low(ish) level the other day, tracked them to mid wales where they disappeared off the screen.

There's quite a lot MLAT traffic around some days :hmm:

[CoffmanStarter]

Please correct me if I'm wrong ...

Multilateration via FR24 requires the use of a number of Ground Based Receivers that then calculate the position/plot of an aircraft target that is emitting SSR (including IFF). The technology was originally developed by the military and doesn't depend on any additional equipment being installed on the target aircraft.

It would seem that the technology can now be made widely available at vastly reduced cost with FR24 actively promoting the wider deployment of their Multilateration equipped ground receivers ... presumably to create over time a global network of commercial value.

I'll leave others to opine ... but hopefully someone will have evaluated the security implications of making such real time Mil data generally available that can be viewed in radar plot form on something as simple as an iPad/Laptop.

[OvertHawk]

I've always thought that such things, including phone app's like "Plane finder" were utterly ludicrous from a security point of view, not to mention an invasion of privacy for operators who are required by law to have mode S transponders yet have no control over the fact that the data is then published to anyone! Want to know where Mr Rich-dude has gone for the weekend - just look on plane finder for where his jet is... and other many less favourable scenarios for those with nefarious minds... Crazy

[CoffmanStarter]

OH ... I agree ... Decoding generally available FAA data is one thing ... But actively intercepting Real Time SSR and IFF signals and computing position data therefrom is a completely different ball game IMHO.

MLAT stands for Multilateration, which means that we are calculating position of aircraft without ADS-B. MLAT on FR24 is done with the help of our new FR24 receiver, with built in GPS, that we have been offering for free to feeders around the world. In order to make MLAT work, we need 4 receivers covering the same area. By using GPS for time synchronization, we can now calculate the position of aircraft, with just a ModeS transponder, from 4 receivers.

After almost 12 months of hardware development and 9 months of software development we are now ready to publish a first beta version to show what we have achieved. By comparing ADS-B plots with MLAT plots of the same aircraft we verified that we have reached an accuracy of about 10-100 meters on MLAT calculations.

We have decided to invite all our premium users (feeders or paid users) to take part in the beta testing if you want. By enabling "MLAT" in settings you can view aircraft with calculated positions on our FR24 map. Today we only have MLAT coverage in parts of Sweden, Poland and Germany. Our next steps will be to improve the quality of MLAT data, improving the stability of the service and fixing all potential bugs. We will at the same time expand our MLAT coverage to other parts of the world with primary focus on Europe and USA where we have most feeders and best coverage.

During our tests we have seen most of the passenger traffic including CRJ-200, CRJ-700, CRJ-900, Embarer E135, Embraer E170, Dash 8, ATR72, Saab 340, Saab 2000, MD80, Boeing 717 and many, many more. But you have to remember that we need coverage from 4+ receivers in order to calculate positions, and there are today no areas where have coverage below 10.000 feet from 4 receivers. In most areas where we have coverage from 4+ receivers today, it's only on altitudes 25.000 feet and above so don't expect to see any Piper 28 or Cessna 172.

Help us with coverage!
There are already another 25 units in distribution to feeders in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, UK, Germany, Poland, Latvia and Estonia. But we need more!
If you live in Europe and if you are a FR24 feeder today and want to upgrade your receiver to MLAT, please contact [email protected] together with you radar code, Google Map link with position of your installation and picture of antenna installation.
If you live in Europe and if you are not a feeder but would like to become a feeder please fill out this form.