flight+

Have you ever wanted to know where the planes flying overhead were going? If so, you finally have a way to find out.

If you head over to Wolfram Alpha right now and input "flights overhead" into the search box, the site will return all the planes that are currently over your position, their altitude, angle, and slant distance. The site even displays a Sky map to show where planes are in relation to the position of the sun and moon.

But if you want more usable data, like where the planes took off from and where they'… Read more

Highly sophisticated robots are being used in a variety of ways: think tsunamis, earthquakes, and land mines, to name a few. In the case of wildfires, though, they wouldn't survive long in the heat of battle.

So a team of graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Cincinnati is testing a tiny new aerial system designed to fly above fires to calculate the scope of damage and the anticipated path the fire will take.

"What we are designing is a complete system," says Kelly Cohen, associate professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics, in a news release. &… Read more

A federal judge has cleared Google's acquisition of ITA Software, effectively putting the year-long story to rest.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Wilkins today approved the consent decree signed between the search giant and the U.S. Justice Department that paved the way for Google to acquire ITA Software. According to Bloomberg, which obtained a copy of the order, Wilkins approved the deal based on his belief that the safeguards in place to protect third-parties were enough to justify the acquisition.

In April, Google announced that it had signed a deal with the Justice Department, allowing it to … Read more

Whether you're a novice traveler or a frequent flyer, the Hipmunk travel search app should be a breeze to handle. Simply type in your destination and departure cities and select your travel dates. Then select Coach, Business, or First class, and enter the number travelers. And that's it. The process is very similar to that of most travel apps and Web sites, plus it comes with some quick auto-complete suggestions, a super-smooth date selector, and uniquely visual interface.

After you fill in all the fields, Hipmunk goes off and searches through its database to bring up tons of … Read more

SANTA ROSA, Calif.--On-demand aviation, the idea that mobility one day can be just as personal and convenient in the air as it is on the ground, is a lofty goal. And it's what competitors at NASA's Green Flight Challenge going on here this week are trying to attain.

Aerospace Engineer Mark Moore said the challenge, which is one of NASA's Centennial Challenges and sponsored by Google, is about finding ways to use the layers of uncluttered 3D space above us to get around--and how to do it in an energy-efficient manner.

Commercial planes currently average about … Read more

Tracking flights and timing either your arrival to pick someone up, or your arrival at the airport for a departure flight can be difficult given how often flights are delayed. There are plenty of apps for your iPhone out there to choose from, as we have already shown you. FlightBoard provides you with another option, allowing for quick flight search by airport, and presenting it in style.

… Read more

Australian airline Qantas will run a pilot program to test response to the inclusion of iPad 2 units on one of its Boeing 767-300 jets. Qantas has installed a personal iPad 2 for each of the 254 seats on the plane, according to a report from Australian Business Traveler.

The iPad will be able to stream media content over Wi-Fi from a server located on the plane itself.

Qantas has a customized iPad app that will drive the on-demand user experience. Toward the end of the trial run, Qantas plans to allow customers with their own iPads to download the … Read more

Virgin America and Gogo announced today that the carrier will be the first airline to offer Gogo's next-generation ATG-4 service. The two companies debuted the in-flight Internet access almost three years ago, and in May 2009, Virgin offered fleetwide Wi-Fi access via Gogo service.

According to Gogo, the new ATG-4 service will increase Wi-Fi capacity by about four times the current performance. This means you can download files faster and can even stream HD content without much latency, while flying. The companies say this improvement is achieved via the addition of directional antenna, dual-modem, and EV-DO Rev. B technology.… Read more

Facebook organizes your friends into Smart Lists, Google Flight Search takes off, and Microsoft previews the next Windows operating system with a new touch-screen mode.

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded: