From the Store description for the new free version:
Turn your Windows Phone into an air traffic radar and see airplane traffic around the world in real-time.
FREE FEATURES
• See planes move in real-time around the World
• Get flight number and callsign info for individual Aircraft
• Search for flights
• Augmented Reality View – identify the planes flying overhead by simply pointing your phone’s camera to the sky (On supported devices)
• See images of most aircraft
In other words, you get the casual look around the sky in real time - which is impressive enough, see below for my walkthrough. Plus you get a few small banner ads. Stumping up for the full version then also gets you:
- detailed flight information for any of the planes found (right down to altutude, speed and heading)
- detailed filters to reduce the number of planes found
- a cockpit view, showing exactly what the pilot of that plane is seeing in real time (simulated using Bing Maps aerial imagery, but still pretty accurate)
- extra (small) in-app purchases to have custom outlines for the various plane types and models, plus arrival tables for each airport around the world.
Coverage for Flightradar24 around the world isn't 100%, but it's getting that way. And certainly, the free 'trial' version will let everyone try the application out in their area first.
Here's a walkthrough of Flightradar24, in both its versions:
Looking by default from your current position, here's what's in the air around you (and in theory visible) - tap a plane icon to see its track, call sign and airline.
The 'sky' augmented reality view is impressive, though it's sometimes tough to match up the legends with what your eyes are seeing - there's bound to be some delay in the data reaching your phone, etc.
Stepping now through to the full version, see the extra flight information shown, including the bar showing progress through its flight plan; (right) tapping through gives even more, plus a better look at the aircraft.
The innovative cockpit view lets you step into any plane at any point. Here's the game - spot a plane about to land at any worldwide airport and then switch to cockpit view to experience what's it's like to fly into that location in an airliner. Anyone spot the runway (of Heathrow) in the far distance?
About to touch down on the runway!
There are two extras available so far - no doubt there will be more to come. Flightradar24 is a high quality tool from start to finish.
You can download the free/trial version of Flightradar24 here, or go straight to the full version here.