Introducing AirBear

AirBear shows the aircraft and radio stations around you on a live map, straight from the airwaves. A small receiver you own picks up the signals they broadcast: a Raspberry Pi with a USB radio. AirBear then shows them on your iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple Vision Pro.

Get AirBear Now

Download AirBear from the App Store.

What's out there

Aircraft. Airliners, business jets, helicopters and many small planes broadcast their position every second or so, using a system called ADS-B. Each message carries the aircraft's callsign, position, altitude, speed and heading. Anyone with an antenna can listen, and a good antenna with a clear view of the sky hears aircraft 100 miles away. AirBear draws each aircraft as an airplane pointing the way it's flying, labelled with its callsign and altitude, with a trail showing where it's been.

APRS stations. Amateur radio operators use APRS to share their positions on the 2-meter band. You'll see cars, hikers, weather stations, high-altitude balloons, and the relay stations that pass it all along. AirBear shows each station as a dot with its callsign, plus its speed when it's moving. You need an amateur radio license to transmit, but not to listen.

You. AirBear also shows your own position, from your device or from a GPS on the receiver.

Why your own receiver

Flight-tracking websites combine what thousands of other people's receivers hear and send it to you over the internet. AirBear shows what your own receiver hears, directly.

It doesn't need the internet at all. AirBear connects to the receiver over your network, or by Bluetooth within about 30 feet, and it has its own built-in map of borders, roads and airports. Take the receiver in the car, to a campsite or out to the airfield, and the map works just as it does at home.

Using AirBear

• Tap any aircraft or station to see its altitude, speed, heading, distance and position. Follow keeps it in view as it moves. When you're online, a link opens it on FlightAware, ADS-B Exchange or aprs.fi.
• Traffic lists everything your receiver has heard. You can search it, show only aircraft or only APRS stations, and sort by nearest, most recent, name or altitude.
• Layers turns borders, roads, airports, labels, trails and traffic that's gone quiet on and off. Airports are drawn down to their runways and taxiways.
• Sources shows each of your receivers and how its connection is doing.
• The map turns dark or light to match your device. On a Mac, the Map menu has keyboard shortcuts for zooming, finding your position and opening each panel.

What you need

• An iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple Vision Pro.
• A receiver:
  • A Raspberry Pi 3, 4, 5 or Zero 2 W.
  • An RTL-SDR USB dongle with a 1090 MHz antenna, for aircraft.
  • Optionally, a second dongle with a 2-meter antenna, for APRS stations.
  • Optionally, a USB GPS, if the receiver travels with you.

Setting up the receiver takes one command, and removing it takes one more. Set Up Your AirBear Receiver walks you through it.

Already running readsb, dump1090 or Direwolf? AirBear reads aircraft from SBS (port 30003), APRS from Direwolf's KISS port and position from an NMEA GPS feed, so you can point it at the receiver you already have.