Public ADS-B is the source
ADS-B Out is a transponder system that every commercial and most private aircraft are required to operate in controlled airspace. The transponder broadcasts the aircraft's ICAO 24-bit address, position, altitude, speed, heading, and identity continuously, on an unencrypted radio frequency. ADS-B Exchange, ADSB.fi, FlightRadar24, and airplanes.live each operate a network of volunteer ground stations that record those broadcasts and re-publish them. We aggregate from those public feeds.
The celebrity register
Each tracked aircraft has an entry in our register that pairs the ICAO hex with a person or corporation. Entries come from public records: FAA registration databases, equivalent registries in other jurisdictions (Bermuda, Isle of Man, Cayman, etc.), court filings, charter records, corporate disclosures, and original reporting from outlets like Bloomberg, Forbes, the New York Post, and Variety. We add entries as the underlying public record becomes available; we do not include entries based on speculation.
Emissions math
CO₂ per flight = duration (hours) × aircraft fuel burn (gph) × 9.57 kg CO₂/gallon. The 9.57 number is the EPA standard combustion factor for Jet-A kerosene fuel. Aircraft fuel burn comes from manufacturer-published cruise rates; we use a representative number per model. Lifetime totals sum every tracked flight for that owner or airframe.
The numbers are best-effort and directional. Published fuel burn assumes typical cruise and an average payload; actual fuel use varies by ±10-15%. Treat the numbers as a fuel-economy MPG rating: useful for comparison, not as audited carbon accounting. See /emissions for the live ranking.
Live versus delayed
On the live map and on every per-celebrity / per-aircraft page, tracking is real-time. On Twitter and Instagram cross-posts run on a 24-hour delay to comply with platform terms. On Bluesky and LinkedIn we post as flights close.
What we don't publish
We do not publish real-time position of aircraft owned by minors, of aircraft chartered for emergency medical or search-and-rescue missions when we can identify them, or of any flight where we have reason to believe publishing live location creates a near-term safety risk. We publish historical records on a delay in those cases.
FAQ
How does Celebplanes know which jet belongs to which celebrity?
The celebrity-to-aircraft register is hand-curated from public records — FAA registration filings, secondary state registries (Bermuda, Isle of Man, Cayman), corporate flight department disclosures, charter manifests, court filings, and reporting from Bloomberg, Forbes, the New York Post, and similar outlets. Each entry records the owner, the tail number, the ICAO 24-bit hex address, and the aircraft type. New entries land when the underlying public record lands.
Where does the live tracking data come from?
Every transponder-equipped aircraft broadcasts unencrypted ADS-B data continuously: position, altitude, speed, heading, and the aircraft's ICAO hex. We aggregate from ADSB Exchange, ADSB.fi, FlightRadar24, and airplanes.live. The hex matches the static register entry, the celebrity becomes the displayed owner.
Is this legal?
Yes. ADS-B Out is mandated by the FAA for most controlled airspace; it is unencrypted by design so other aircraft and air-traffic-control systems can use it. Listening to the broadcast costs a $30 software-defined radio. Re-publishing what is already public information is protected speech in most jurisdictions, including the United States. Several public-interest organisations and academic researchers do the same with the same data.
What about FAA LADD?
The FAA Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed (LADD) program asks operator-facing aviation data services (Flight Aware, FlightRadar24's public site) to suppress an aircraft from their public listings. LADD does not affect the underlying ADS-B broadcast — the aircraft still emits its position publicly — and several open data sources (ADSB Exchange, airplanes.live) explicitly do not honour LADD. Some celebrities have enrolled in LADD; the planes are still trackable from public sources.
Why a 24-hour delay on social posts?
On Twitter and Instagram every flight post runs on a 24-hour delay so we comply with platform terms (X / Meta both have rules around real-time location sharing). On Bluesky and LinkedIn we file each flight as it closes; those platforms have no such restrictions. The map at celebplanes.com/map and the per-celebrity / per-aircraft pages here show real-time data — the delay only applies to what we cross-post on Twitter and Instagram.
How are emissions calculated?
For each tracked flight we multiply duration (hours) by the aircraft model's published fuel burn (gallons per hour) by 9.57 kg CO₂ per gallon of Jet-A — the EPA standard combustion factor. Lifetime totals sum every tracked flight for an airframe or owner. The numbers are best-effort: published fuel burn assumes typical cruise; actual usage varies ±10-15%. See /emissions for the full methodology.
What does Celebplanes deliberately NOT publish?
We do not publish: real-time position of aircraft owned by minors or by individuals at known elevated risk; aircraft chartered for emergency medical, search-and-rescue, or government missions when we can identify them; any flight where we have reason to believe publishing live location creates a near-term safety risk. We do publish completed flight records in those cases, on a delay where appropriate.
Attributions derived from FAA registry + ADSB Exchange + SEC filings; may be incomplete or outdated. Methodology · Report an error. Observational use only.