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Introduction

Airframes is an aeronautical/aircraft data service that aggregates data in real-time from feeds in the field all around the world, processes the data, and makes available this data to the public.

Similar to adsb.one, adsb.fi, Plane Watch, and ADSBExchange, all data that is collected and processed remains unfiltered and unbiased by governments, nation states, and corporate interests.

The nature of the data collected by Airframes is that it augments and enhances the data of existing aggregation services, providing a deeper look at aircraft internals, airline inter-communications, and aerospace systems that power our skies.

What makes Airframes different?​

Airframes focuses on aggregation of ACARS data, which is actually an accumulation of various tranmission mediums, formats, and protocols (such as VDL, HFDL, SATCOM, etc). ACARS is a short message system that was designed for many purposes. This allows bi-directional messaging capabilities between the airframe and ATC, the airframe and airline, as well as airframe to airframe.

An interesting use of ACARS is for automated OOOI reports (also known as Out, Off, On, In Reports), which allow for automated flight logging for important flight events. But beyond OOOI reports, there are many other purposes for ACARS, such as:

  • Incremental Position Reporting and Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) Messages
  • Text Weather (METARs/TAFs/NOTAMs/PIREPs)
  • Graphical Weather Charts
  • Pre-Departure Clearance (PDC) and Datalink Clearance (DCL) Messages
  • Flight Plan Uplinks
  • Oceanic Clearance Delivery (OCD)
  • Terminal Weather Information for Pilots (TWIP)
  • Digital Airport Terminal Information System (D-ATIS)
  • Gate Notifications
  • Fuel and Service Requests
  • Free-Text Messages
  • Maintenance Reporting
  • Airframe Fatigue Reports
  • Aircraft Engine and Health Reports
  • Aircraft Weight-and-Balance Load Sheets and Trim Sheets
  • Diversion Tracking
  • Special Passenger Advice
  • Air Traffic Services (ATS)
  • Future Air Navigation System (FANS)
  • ADS-Contract (ADS-C)
  • Controller-Pilot Datalink Communications (CPDLC)

As you can see, there's a wealth of information on ACARS, and Airframes exists to continually capture, aggregate, parse, and reveal the useful information otherwise not available on unfiltered and unbiased aggregators. Airframes is partnering with other known ADS-B aggregators to enhance our collective capabilities. By feeding ACARS to Airframes, feeders are helping to enhance the data the partners receive.