Plane Finder – Track Flights Worldwide on this Amazing Google Maps Mashup

If you’ve ever watched a jet’s contrails appear overhead and wondered where the flight’s going and where it came from then you’re going to love this website. The online version of the already successful iPhone and Android apps, Plane Finder displays a live map on which thousands of aeroplanes move across the globe. You can click on any of the aeroplanes on the map to find out more about it.

Clicking on any aircraft pulls up a flight identifier box with flight, plane and sharing tabs. In the flight tab you can see the flight number, origin and destination, aircraft type, speed and altitude. You can toggle the flight path on or off and even view the plane’s route in realtime on Google Earth. On the plane tab you can see further information about the aircraft and view a gallery of images. In the sharing tab you can share the flight’s details with friends on Facebook or Twitter.

Plane Finder’s sophistication doesn’t end there though. If you have a look in the map options you can restrict the map to specific airlines, show only aircraft flying at a specific altitude range or speed, search for a plane by flight number or registration or tweak all the map settings. It’s the sort of website that’s perfect for following the progress of friends and family as they fly between destinations and, since it’s live data, will enable you to carefully time your trip to the airport to pick them up.