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Aviation glossary

Live position

Also: aircraft in flight, real-time position

On Vuelopedia

The current position of an aircraft in flight, shown in its record from the ADS-B signals it transmits and that ground receivers pick up.

What it is

Most airliners regularly broadcast their position, altitude and speed through ADS-B, tagged with their ICAO 24-bit address. A network of ground receivers picks up those signals and makes them publicly available.

When an aircraft is airborne, its Vuelopedia record shows where it is and its recent flights. Coverage is good over land and populated areas and weaker over oceans and remote regions, where there are no receivers nearby.

So a missing position does not mean the aircraft is not flying: it may simply be out of range of the receivers.

On Vuelopedia

The live position appears in the aircraft record while the aircraft is flying.

Related terms

ADS-BA system in which an aircraft automatically and regularly broadcasts its satellite-derived position, altitude, speed and identity by radio. ICAO 24-bit addressUnique 24-bit code, written as six hexadecimal characters, that electronically identifies an aircraft in the signals transmitted by its transponder. TransponderAn on-board device that answers secondary radar interrogations with an identity code, its altitude and, in Mode S, a unique 24-bit address. Aircraft recordThe Vuelopedia page devoted to one individual aircraft, bringing together its identity, technical data, operators, flight log and event history.
Whole glossary

Cite

To cite this page in academic work, an article or Wikipedia, choose the style and copy the reference. The access date is today.

This page was last updated on October 9, 2026

APA

Vuelopedia. (2026, October 9). Live position. Retrieved October 17, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/live-position

MLA

“Live position.” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 9 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/live-position. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Vuelopedia. “Live position.” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 9, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/live-position.

Harvard

Vuelopedia (2026) Live position. Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/live-position (Accessed: 17 October 2026).

BibTeX

@misc{vuelopedia_en_glossary_live_position,
  author       = {{Vuelopedia}},
  title        = {{Live position}},
  publisher    = {Fundación Poderia},
  year         = {2026},
  date         = {2026-10-09},
  url          = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/live-position},
  howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/live-position}},
  urldate      = {2026-10-17},
  note         = {Accessed 2026-10-17}
}

Wikipedia

{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/glossary/live-position |title=Live position |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-09 |access-date=2026-10-17 |language=en}}

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