Show HN: I made explorable +38M flights in a 3D visualization
Since I was a kid, I have always been fascinated by the flight display screens at the airport wondering where I can fly direct if I had an open ticket
There are more than 38 million commercial flights per year departing from +3,200 airports and served by +580 airlines! So much data that can be summarized and made accessible to everyone in an easy and convenient interface.
Today, I’m releasing Direct flights, a tool to explore all non-stop flights from any airport: https://direct-flights.com/
# How it's made?
The frontend is built on React - using a server-side rendering on NodeJS for SEO purposes. The backend is built in Python. The map is rendered with HTML5 Canvas (TopoJSON map with d3-geo) while interactions with the zoom are managed with SVG (with d3-geo-zoom).
# Geeky and unique features
• Dynamic social preview card: When you share a link on social media, it automatically generates a thumbnail by taking a screenshot (using headless chrome) of the visualization with live data.
• Showing flight routes on a 3D globe: Representing the earth as a 3D globe made more sense to visualize realistic flight routes instead of a distorted flat map (where you wonder why the pilot is taking a "long route” over the North Pole to cross the Atlantic...).
• Select the closest airport to your cursor: It's very hard to nail the right airport on a map when there’s a cluster of items (especially for multi-airports areas like SF Bay Area). Direct Flights computes a Voronoi diagram to have larger clickable areas.
# Business model
Direct Flights can be integrated as a B2B white label solution for airlines and airports so that passengers can discover new destinations in a more visual manner (Would love to discuss with anyone connected in this ecosystem). Moreover, there's a B2C aspect, where we get an affiliate commission for ticket sales through kiwi.com
I look forward to reading your comments and questions!