Look Up: Wolfram Alpha Can Identify That Airplane
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Wolfram Alpha, the company whose scientists are responsible for the smarts behind that sometimes-sarcasticSiri assistant on the iPhone 4S, has figured out a way to give you an abundance of information about any plane you see flying overhead.
For some reason, every time I see a plane go by, I’m immediately wondering what type of aircraft it is, where it’s coming from, where it’s going, what airline it belongs to and how high it’s flying at the moment. Now, Wolfram Alpha can satisfy my curiosity in real time, letting me look it up on the Wolfram Alpha Computational Knowledge Engine.
Where is that located, you say? In some sheltered lab deep underground within a defense department bunker? Heck no, it’s a lot more accessible than that — just enter the search term “flights overhead” at WolframAlpha.com on any computer or smartphone’s browser, and you’ll see results like this:
As you can see in the graphic above, you’ll get a list of the airliners overheadand what type of aircraft they are, and there’s a sky map that even tells you where to look for them.
When you spot a plane, you can click on that flight and drill down to even more info, showing you everything you’d want to know about the flight short of who the passengers are and what they’re talking about at the moment. You’ll see where it came from and where it’s going, its flight duration, a full map of its flight path, how long it’s been in the air and a lot more.
Tip: While you can look up this data using a smartphone, when we tested it on iPhones and Android phones, that handy Sky Map didn’t show up. But you can still tell where to look for planes by using the “Angle” information provided by Wolfram Alpha.
By the way, there’s no need to spend the $2.99 for the Wolfram Alpha app on the iPhone or $1.49 for the Android version to get this data — even though both of are useful apps, you can get the “flights overhead” info on a standard browser on most computing devices.
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