Volans: A Public Portal for Viewing Flight Data, Noise and Other Airport Information

BridgeNet International, located in Newport Beach, California, provides consulting and software development services for airports and airport authorities around the world. Their services are primarily related to noise studies, analysis and reporting of aircraft operations near airports, flight procedure visualization, analysis and development, and the visualization of flight and noise data.

BridgeNet’s Volans software was developed in Java using NASA’s WorldWind to provide 3D display and analysis of procedures and flight operations for airports and airport authorities. However, the continuous advancement of browser capabilities and technologies has convinced them that browser-based applications will play an increasingly important role in providing simple and powerful solutions for their customers. To this end they are using Cesium to develop browser-based versions of their software that provide solutions accessible to anyone.

The Volans site for the San Francisco International Airport provides the public with an interactive tool used to view information about local aircraft operations and noise (both near real-time and historic). They have created similar sites for other airports including John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California and Heathrow Airport in London.