Airffic World
Managing autonomous drone operations
The more an aircraft decides for itself, the more the people around it need two things: to know where it is right now, and to be able to trace what happened afterward. Flying and watching are different jobs.
First: what this is, and what it is not
To avoid any confusion: Airffic World does not fly drones. It does not plan routes and it does not command the aircraft.
It does the job next to that. It receives the position and altitude an aircraft sends while it flies, puts them on a live map, and keeps them as history. The aircraft flies; this layer watches.
| Who does it | What it covers | |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomous flight | The aircraft and its flight controller | Following the route, avoiding obstacles |
| Situational awareness | Airffic World | Live position and altitude on a map |
| The record | Airffic World | Flight history, stored and searchable |
| Permits and approvals | Your regulator (MLIT, FAA, CAA) | Applying for and receiving authorization |
Why autonomy makes the watching layer necessary
While a pilot has the aircraft in sight, its position is a matter of looking up. Beyond visual line of sight, or with the aircraft flying under its own judgment, that assumption goes away. The aircraft keeps going; the people know only what a screen tells them.
What is needed is a channel through which the aircraft keeps saying “I am here”. That is telemetry. While the positions keep arriving, the aircraft can be followed on the map; when they stop arriving, that silence is itself the first sign that something is wrong.
After landing, the same stream matters again. Can you trace the route if something is questioned? Can you look back over a month of operations and see the pattern? Awareness during the flight and the record after it come from the same data.
Connecting: send a position, nothing more
No special hardware and no SDK. Send latitude, longitude and altitude over HTTP. The language and the hardware on the aircraft are your choice.
- 01Register the aircraft and get an API keyIn the pilot console, give the aircraft a name and an ID. A key scoped to your account is issued.
- 02Send positions from the aircraftPOST latitude, longitude, altitude and a timestamp. From curl, from Python, from the companion computer on board — whatever you have.
- 03Watch the mapThe map moves the moment a position arrives. No polling, no refresh.
What you send
| Meaning | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| drone_id | Aircraft identifier | Matches the aircraft you registered |
| latitude | Latitude in decimal degrees | -90 to 90 |
| longitude | Longitude in decimal degrees | -180 to 180 |
| altitude | Altitude in meters | 0 or above |
| timestamp | Time of the fix | Defaults to the time of receipt if omitted |
A full request example and the response format are in the developer guide.
How flight data is handled
A flight path is a description of your business. Where you fly, when, and how often is not something a competitor should be able to read.
All data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and row-level security in the database restricts every query to the rows tied to your account. This is enforced by the database, not by application code, so a mistaken API call cannot return someone else’s data.
Questions people ask
Does Airffic World fly the drone for me?
No. It does not control the aircraft or generate routes. Its job is the layer beside that: receive the position and altitude the aircraft reports, put them on a live map, and keep them as history. The flight controller or onboard autonomy flies; Airffic World watches and records.
Which aircraft can connect?
Any. Connecting means sending latitude, longitude and altitude in an HTTP POST, so the manufacturer, the onboard language and the hardware do not matter. You do not modify the aircraft; you add a small sender.
Can I track more than one aircraft at once?
Yes. Register each aircraft with its own ID and the whole fleet appears on one map. One aircraft or a hundred, the workflow is the same.
Can other users see my flight data?
No. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and row-level security in the database means a query can only reach rows tied to your own account. API keys are visible only to their owner.
Can I use these records for a BVLOS or Level 4 application?
The application itself goes through your regulator — in Japan, MLIT; in the US, the FAA; in the UK, the CAA — and Airffic World does not file it for you. What it gives you is an automatic record of date, route and altitude for every flight, which is useful for operational logs and internal review. Check the regulatory requirements against the primary source.
How long does setup take?
Sign in with a Google account, register the aircraft and issue an API key — a minute or so. Then write the sender on the aircraft side. The first position it sends appears on the map.
Related
- Developer guide and API →The telemetry endpoint in detail, with sample code.
- Open the flight monitor →The live map itself.
- How to fly a drone in Japan →Registration, permits and where you can fly.
- Drone facade inspection →What to do with the photographs the flight brings back.
- 日本語版 — 自律飛行ドローンの運航管理 →The Japanese guide.
Connect an aircraft
From creating an account to holding an API key takes about a minute. Free to try.
Get started →