Flightaware is pretty cool. All flights in the US need to use ADS-B transponders, which Flightaware receives and build a database of that can be neatly visualized. You can build your own receiver from a Pi and a cheap
E.g., as of now (Wed Nov 4 09:30:56 PST 2020), I can see a bunch of Hawker Hunter planes (registration N330AX-N335AX) flying some sort of search pattern in the ocean close to hundred miles off the coast near King City, CA.
According the registration, these planes are in trust by “TVPX AIRCRAFT SOLUTIONS INC”. They are supposed to be “1959 HAWKER AIRCRAFT LTD HAWKER HUNTER MK.58 Fixed wing single engine”, a relic from the RAF.
Weird that. Are they prepping for flight shows ? The flight patterns don’t look like that. Are they maybe testing autonomous flight ? Seems expensive. Trying to find election-interfering subs ? Secret Air force prototype planes in disguise ? Maybe just flight training, although there are 4 planes flying loosely together, and 2 seemingly in formation. But why wouldn’t the planes then be operated by the AF ?
Anyway, crunching ALL the data and finding anomalies would be a fun job for a data scientist or analyst.
Written on November 4, 2020