Flight Tracking (OpenSky Network)
Real-time flight data from the OpenSky Network. Track aircraft by transponder address, query all flights within a geographic bounding box, or pull arrival and departure lists for any airport. Free and open, no API key needed.
Tools
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
get_flights_in_area |
All aircraft currently in a lat/lon bounding box |
get_aircraft |
Track a specific aircraft by ICAO24 hex address (e.g., "a0b1c2") |
get_arrivals |
Recent arrivals at an airport by ICAO code (e.g., "KLAX") within a time range |
get_departures |
Recent departures from an airport by ICAO code within a time range |
When to use
- "What planes are flying over Manhattan right now?" — define a bounding box around NYC
- Tracking a specific flight by its transponder code
- Building an airport dashboard showing recent arrivals and departures
- Aviation research or ADS-B data analysis
Example: flights over London
curl -s -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/flights/mcp \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"get_flights_in_area","arguments":{"lamin":51.3,"lomin":-0.5,"lamax":51.7,"lomax":0.3}}}'
Returns ICAO24 address, callsign, origin country, altitude, velocity, heading, and position for each aircraft.
MCP config
{
"mcpServers": {
"pipeworx-flights": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "mcp-remote@latest", "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/flights/mcp"]
}
}
}
Notes
- Time ranges for arrivals/departures use Unix timestamps and are limited to 7-day windows
- The API updates aircraft positions roughly every 10 seconds
- Anonymous access is rate-limited; data may be slightly delayed