AirNav training Potential Hijackers

[birdie]

Just received an email from The Chief Thief Andre of AirNav.

I was encouraged to download an App from Apple Store - " Skyjacker "

- an Apps that teach one how to hijack a plane from the sky using you radar scanner.

This is scaring ! What happens if potential terrorists practice on this Apps and do a real thing ?

Should the relevant Law Enforcement Agencies be tipped off ?

[Anmer]

Unfortunately Brandao hasn't sent me a message lately so I have no idea why he's encouraging you to download a game app?

I assume you're referring to this game?

https://www.playskyjacker.com/

[Keef]

Hi Birdie,

If you think it is a significant threat that needs to be addressed by law enforcement then I suggest you contact the authorities you deem relevant directly.

If it is an encouragement to recruit terrorists then the best thing to do is not publicise the link and as previously mentioned contact the authorities you see fit to deal with whatever threat you perceive.

[willdogg]

Hi there.

I'm Will. Myself and a friend made Skyjacker because we loved using flight tracking apps like FlightRadar24 and Plane Finder but wanted to make a game using the aircraft flying over our heads. If you've played the game, you'll know it's basically a massive worldwide game of tag - kinda Pokemon Go meets ADS-B. You can choose whether to fly the airplane to it's original destination or divert it to another airport. Being essentially a collection game, it helps bring aircraft identification and airport code knowledge to people don't necessarily call themselves aviation enthusiasts.

We're doing this out of our spare time, and we've learnt a lot about tracking and aircraft data during the past 6 months. The game is quite basic at the moment, but we're building and adding features all the time.

If you have questions about the game, the name/theme, the data source or which authorities to notify please shout.

Cheers
Will

[Anmer]

Hi Will

Welcome and thanks for the briefing on Skyjacker.

Just to clear up any misunderstanding, is there any connection to AirNav Systems, direct or indirect?

[willdogg]

Hey Anmer

Thanks, we started getting into the world of airplane tracking this January when we started building out our game. I guess there are many ways to start getting hooked in, and we're learning a lot every day!

We started building our first prototype with FlightAware's per request API which at any scale is too expensive to run an app. In discussion with the FlightAware sales team for access to the firehose, we were astounded that they demanded a massive monthly cost + a large revenue share, so as indie developers, we had to look elsewhere.

We then reached out to all the major aggregators of flight data for commercial access to flight data feeds. We ended up using AirNav Systems and have a commercial deal with them. I've seen the posts in this forum about AirNav and it seems like there is some bad blood between some members and AirNav. For our part, we have been dealt with in a very professional and courteous manner by the team at AirNav Systems, so have no complaints.

I guess we're coming from a different side of the equation to most members on this forum. We're looking for clean and accurate feeds for our gamers to enjoy and play with aviation data, whilst a lot of members on here are doing an excellent job of providing data feeds to aggregators. Would be interested to hear how data feeders feel about these commercial arrangements?

Happy to chat more.

Cheers
Will

[Anmer]

Thanks Will.

I guess that explains why you list AirNav at the top of your list of "The top 5 flight tracking apps in the iOS App Store" and show outdated Release dates for the others, all of whom rank higher than AirNav's app?

https://www.playskyjacker.com/dev-blog

[willdogg]

Yep. I'm using the release dates and metadata from iTunes link maker site, so they're not outdated, they are the original release dates. Plane Finder even put their original release year into the top of their description as older usually = more development time and higher quality.
https://linkmaker.itunes.apple.com/en-us/details/336477530