A real-time flight tracking application that follows my brother Vini’s globe-trotting adventures with complete privacy protection and beautiful visualizations.
Features
Live tracking: Shows Vini’s current location with country flags, local time, and countdown to his next departure. Displays comprehensive flight statistics including total flights, countries visited, and travel insights.
Privacy-first design: Only exposes countries and airport codes – all sensitive flight details, airline information, and aircraft data are sanitized before reaching the API.
Beautiful interface: Features animated gradient backgrounds with floating orbs, glassmorphism design cards with backdrop blur effects, and fully responsive mobile-optimized layouts.
PWA capabilities: Installable web app with manifest, service worker support, and complete SEO optimization including Open Graph previews and structured data markup.
Architecture
Built with Next.js 15 App Router and React 19, featuring dedicated API routes for privacy-sanitized flight data. Puppeteer-based scraper runs every 12 hours via GitHub Actions, automatically collecting and updating flight data from Flightradar24.
Data layer consists of JSON files storing raw flight data and statistics, all auto-updated through the automated workflow. API endpoints serve sanitized responses with current location, next trip details, and comprehensive travel statistics.
Technical implementation
Frontend: Next.js 15, React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS with real-time countdown timers and animated UI components.
Backend: Next.js API Routes handling privacy-focused data processing and automated data collection via Puppeteer.
Infrastructure: GitHub Actions for scheduled workflows, Vercel deployment, complete SEO suite with perfect Lighthouse scores.
The system demonstrates how to build engaging real-time applications while maintaining strict privacy standards – no personal information, flight numbers, or sensitive travel details are ever exposed.