EN - RadarView's History

The Genesis: From RawFlight to RadarView (2019 - Early 2025)

The story begins back in 2019-2021 when Bruce, RadarView's founder, alongside a colleague, launched a project named RawFlight. While promising, financial hurdles eventually led to its discontinuation.

Fast forward to September 2023: the passion for flight tracking reignited! Bruce decided to bring the vision back to life, this time solo, under the new name RadarView. The domain ads-b.pro was acquired, marking the first step of a new adventure.

The later part of 2023 was a period of intense experimentation. The first non-public versions emerged, though they were quite unstable. Early attempts to process BaseStation data into a usable JSON format proved challenging, a common hurdle in ADS-B data handling.

By February 2024, a significant step forward was made with a somewhat functional mechanism for BaseStation to JSON conversion. However, it wasn't perfect – aircraft positions on the map would often reset with every new data frame, making for a jittery experience.

A major breakthrough arrived in May 2024 with the transition to WebSocket technology. This was a huge milestone, finally allowing for a continuous and stable display of aircraft data without the frustrating resets. The radar started to feel much more alive!

Development momentum continued into June 2024, with the addition of a Python-based backend and API. This period also saw the initial groundwork for a METAR API and the painstaking manual creation of basic STAR/SID procedures based on AIP data.

July 2024 was a landmark month: the METAR API was officially published within the radar. New map layers were introduced, and crucially, RadarView was publicly announced and launched for the world to see!

A unique development occurred in August 2024. During a trip to Costa Rica, Bruce, with his partner (who works at Microsoft), architected and developed a dedicated data warehouse for SID & STAR procedures. Pura Vida & Procs!

To bolster security and protect the project's data, an API Proxy was developed in October 2024. This aimed to obfuscate and encrypt API responses, safeguarding them against unauthorized use. Shortly after, in November 2024, the SIDSTAR API was published on the radar.

However, academic commitments called. From late 2024 through March 2025, development paused as Bruce focused on his Master's thesis. In March 2025, after some minor fixes, the difficult decision was made to freeze the project indefinitely.

The Revival: A New Beginning (April 2025 - Present)

The hiatus was thankfully short-lived. In late April 2025, a quiet decision was made: RadarView would return! This revival was significantly boosted by a confluence of fortunate events: the Easter holidays and the May long weekend (Majówka) provided blocks of free time. Crucially, submitting his Master's thesis ahead of schedule (and its subsequent, successful acceptance!) was a game-changer, freeing Bruce up to dedicate all his available personal time to the intensive development of RadarView. Seizing this opportunity, he immediately began completely rewriting the radar's frontend using modern technologies: TypeScript and React.

The first week of May 2025 brought exciting news to the community with a public announcement detailing RadarView's comeback and its new vision. Hot on the heels of this, the ADSBMixer service, a core component for data aggregation, underwent a total rewrite. This wasn't just a code refresh; the new version boasted incredible efficiency, slashing RAM usage from a hefty 3GB down to a lean 200MB! Public statistics for ADSBMixer were also launched.

During the second week of May 2025, further announcements clarified new access tiers and features. Behind the scenes, development was in full swing:

• A robust account management system and an administrative panel were crafted.
• The initial version of a user feedback system was designed and integrated with admin panel controls.
• The "Collections" feature began to take shape.

The momentum carried into mid-May 2025:

• The feedback system was completed.
• A much-needed password reset system was implemented.
• The ADSBMixer service was further optimized to automatically assign roles to data feeders, streamlining the onboarding process.
• A critical data migration moved feeders from the old database to the new system.

And, true to the revived project's rapid pace, on May 15, 2025 (today!), public user registration was launched! This included token generation for new feeders, robust anti-spam measures for the registration form using Cloudflare Turnstile, and the rollout of a user account panel. Work also continued on enhancing the "Collections" feature.

RadarView is back, rebuilt from the ground up, and developing faster than ever – all thanks to passion and dedicated after-hours work!