You may recall that one Jack Sweeney created ElonJet , a service to track Elon Musk’s jet in real time. This led to his account being suspended by Twitter, but you can find him on Mastodon .
He has a public repository for tracking planes , but it’s written in Python. I wanted to do the same for Perl, so I did. I wrote WebService::OpenSky (also available on GitHub ), which is a Perl wrapper around the OpenSky Network API . From OpenSky Network’s home page :
The OpenSky Network is a non-profit community-based receiver network which has been continuously collecting air traffic surveillance data since 2013. Unlike other networks, OpenSky keeps the complete unfiltered raw data and makes it accessible to academic and institutional researchers. With over 30 trillion ADS-B, Mode S, TCAS and FLARM messages collected from more than 5000 sensors around the world, the OpenSky Network exhibits the largest air traffic surveillance dataset of its kind. The mission of our non-profit association is to support open global air traffic research by universities and other not-for-profit institutions. You can find more information on our blog .
I won’t go into great detail about the API, but it’s pretty simple. You can read the docs to understand more, but here’s a quick example:
use WebService::OpenSky;
my $musks_jet = 'a835af';
my $openapi = WebService::OpenSky->new;
my $days = shift @ARGV || 7;
my $now = time;
my $then = $now - 86400 * $days;
my $flight_data = $openapi
->get_flights_by_aircraft( $musks_jet, $then, $now );
say "Jet $musks_jet has "
. $flight_data->count . " flights";
As of this writing, that prints out: Jet a835af has 3 flights
The $flight_data object allows you to iterate over the flights, but it’s
pretty limited. I wanted more. I wanted something like this:
Flight #1. Departed Monday, 29 May, 10:42 AM UTC
from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Austin, Texas, US
Flight #1. Arrived Monday, 29 May, 04:34 PM UTC
at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, Anchorage, Alaska, US
Flight #2. Departed Thursday, 01 Jun, 04:32 AM UTC
from unknown airport, unknown city
Flight #2. Arrived Thursday, 01 Jun, 04:45 PM UTC
at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Austin, Texas, US
Flight #3. Departed Thursday, 01 Jun, 04:32 AM UTC
from unknown airport, unknown city
Flight #3. Arrived Thursday, 01 Jun, 04:45 PM UTC
at unknown airport, unknown city
As you can see, the data itself is spotty, but the older the data, the more accurate it appears to be. So how did we get there?
First, we need to get the ICAO 24-bit hexadecimal
code
for Musk’s private jet. It turns out he has three of them, but I’m only tracking
the one he’s using the most. A quick search for “icao 24 Elon Musk’s jet”
revealed this Hacker News discussion of
it . Various other sources
confirmed this, with the N628TS registrations having the icao number of
a835af.
Next, we need to get the flight data. The OpenSky API allows you to get flight data and that’s shown in the script above. However, it’s not very useful. I wanted to see the actual airport names and times (the times returned by the API are Unix epochs ).
Getting the ICAO codes for the airports was a bit harder. Since I’m doing this open source, I eventually tracked down a fairly active GitHub repository with airport data . I wanted to use the Geo::ICAO module to convert the ICAO data, but it’s out-of-date and missing a lot of airports. Thus, I wrote this code:
sub get_icao_data {
my $url
= 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mborsetti/airportsdata/main/airportsdata/airports.csv';
my $ua = Mojo::UserAgent->new;
return eval {
my $response = $ua->get($url)->res;
my %lookup;
if ( $response->is_success ) {
my ( $fh, $filename ) = tempfile();
print {$fh} $response->body;
close $fh;
my $data = csv(
in => $filename,
headers => "auto",
);
%lookup = map { $_->{icao} => $_ } @$data;
}
\%lookup;
};
}
If any airports are missing from that (and it appears there may be some issues),
I fall back to Geo::ICAO. The solution has been working well so far.
Obviously, paid services are more accurate, but this is good enough for my
needs.
I’ll skip explaining the rest of the code, but here’s a link to the full
script . Running
that as perl lights.pl --days 30 outputs:
Flight #1. Departed Sunday, 07 May, 08:39 PM UTC
from Miami-Opa Locka Exec Airport, Miami, Florida, US
Flight #1. Arrived Sunday, 07 May, 11:01 PM UTC
at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Austin, Texas, US
Flight #2. Departed Monday, 08 May, 06:40 PM UTC
from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Austin, Texas, US
Flight #2. Arrived Monday, 08 May, 07:13 PM UTC
at Corpus Christi International Airport, Corpus Christi, Texas, US
Flight #3. Departed Monday, 08 May, 07:47 PM UTC
from Corpus Christi International Airport, Corpus Christi, Texas, US
Flight #3. Arrived Monday, 08 May, 08:21 PM UTC
at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Austin, Texas, US
Flight #4. Departed Monday, 08 May, 08:59 PM UTC
from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Austin, Texas, US
Flight #4. Arrived Monday, 08 May, 09:29 PM UTC
at Corpus Christi International Airport, Corpus Christi, Texas, US
Flight #5. Departed Monday, 08 May, 09:55 PM UTC
from Corpus Christi International Airport, Corpus Christi, Texas, US
Flight #5. Arrived Monday, 08 May, 10:10 PM UTC
at Farm Services Inc Airport, Rio Hondo, Texas, US
Flight #6. Departed Tuesday, 09 May, 02:07 PM UTC
from unknown airport, unknown city
Flight #6. Arrived Tuesday, 09 May, 05:19 PM UTC
at Napa County Airport, Napa, California, US
Flight #7. Departed Tuesday, 09 May, 06:37 PM UTC
from Napa County Airport, Napa, California, US
Flight #7. Arrived Tuesday, 09 May, 07:06 PM UTC
at Norman Y Mineta San Jose International Airport, San Jose, California, US
Flight #8. Departed Friday, 12 May, 06:25 AM UTC
from Norman Y Mineta San Jose International Airport, San Jose, California, US
Flight #8. Arrived Friday, 12 May, 07:15 AM UTC
at Jack Northrop Field/Hawthorne Municipal Airport, Hawthorne, California, US
Flight #9. Departed Saturday, 13 May, 04:18 AM UTC
from Jack Northrop Field/Hawthorne Municipal Airport, Hawthorne, California, US
Flight #9. Arrived Saturday, 13 May, 05:27 AM UTC
at unknown airport, unknown city
Flight #10. Departed Sunday, 14 May, 10:27 PM UTC
from unknown airport, unknown city
Flight #10. Arrived Monday, 15 May, 07:38 AM UTC
at Paris-Le Bourget Airport, Paris, Ile-de-France, FR
Flight #11. Departed Monday, 15 May, 06:19 PM UTC
from Paris-Le Bourget Airport, Paris, Ile-de-France, FR
Flight #11. Arrived Tuesday, 16 May, 03:48 AM UTC
at Seidel Ranch Airport, Elroy, Texas, US
Flight #12. Departed Friday, 19 May, 01:10 PM UTC
from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Austin, Texas, US
Flight #12. Arrived Friday, 19 May, 03:59 PM UTC
at Norman Y Mineta San Jose International Airport, San Jose, California, US
Flight #13. Departed Saturday, 20 May, 06:35 AM UTC
from Norman Y Mineta San Jose International Airport, San Jose, California, US
Flight #13. Arrived Saturday, 20 May, 11:12 AM UTC
at Rhode Island Tf Green International Airport, Providence, Rhode Island, US
Flight #14. Departed Saturday, 20 May, 07:54 PM UTC
from unknown airport, unknown city
Flight #14. Arrived Saturday, 20 May, 11:17 PM UTC
at Seidel Ranch Airport, Elroy, Texas, US
Flight #15. Departed Sunday, 21 May, 12:12 AM UTC
from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Austin, Texas, US
Flight #15. Arrived Sunday, 21 May, 02:45 AM UTC
at Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California, US
Flight #16. Departed Sunday, 21 May, 06:03 PM UTC
from Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California, US
Flight #16. Arrived Sunday, 21 May, 08:32 PM UTC
at Seidel Ranch Airport, Elroy, Texas, US
Flight #17. Departed Tuesday, 23 May, 02:41 PM UTC
from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Austin, Texas, US
Flight #17. Arrived Tuesday, 23 May, 05:38 PM UTC
at Norman Y Mineta San Jose International Airport, San Jose, California, US
Flight #18. Departed Thursday, 25 May, 03:40 PM UTC
from Norman Y Mineta San Jose International Airport, San Jose, California, US
Flight #18. Arrived Thursday, 25 May, 04:27 PM UTC
at Jack Northrop Field/Hawthorne Municipal Airport, Hawthorne, California, US
Flight #19. Departed Friday, 26 May, 01:08 AM UTC
from Jack Northrop Field/Hawthorne Municipal Airport, Hawthorne, California, US
Flight #19. Arrived Friday, 26 May, 01:55 AM UTC
at Norman Y Mineta San Jose International Airport, San Jose, California, US
Flight #20. Departed Friday, 26 May, 07:00 AM UTC
from Norman Y Mineta San Jose International Airport, San Jose, California, US
Flight #20. Arrived Friday, 26 May, 09:37 AM UTC
at Seidel Ranch Airport, Elroy, Texas, US
Flight #21. Departed Monday, 29 May, 10:42 AM UTC
from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Austin, Texas, US
Flight #21. Arrived Monday, 29 May, 04:34 PM UTC
at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, Anchorage, Alaska, US
Flight #22. Departed Thursday, 01 Jun, 04:32 AM UTC
from unknown airport, unknown city
Flight #22. Arrived Thursday, 01 Jun, 04:45 PM UTC
at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Austin, Texas, US
Flight #23. Departed Thursday, 01 Jun, 04:32 AM UTC
from unknown airport, unknown city
Flight #23. Arrived Thursday, 01 Jun, 04:45 PM UTC
at unknown airport, unknown city
As you can see, he arrived in Paris on Monday, 15 May, 2023 at 07:38 AM UTC. He
spent a few hours there before flying back to the Seidel Ranch airport in Texas
(that was the first airport which let me know that Geo::ICAO data was
incomplete). A quick search revealed he was in Paris to meet with French
president Emmanuel Macron.
Have fun!