Historical ADS-B
Which Historical ADS-B endpoint do you call and what plan do you need? This hub orients you to the archived ADS-B group. For live positions, see ADS-B. GPS spoofing — when an aircraft's position signal is deliberately falsified — is flagged in the gps_spoofing_suspected field on flight records.
Path prefixes (/ultra/history/... vs /mega/history/...) control retention window and per-request limits, not your RapidAPI plan name. See Rate Limits → Historical ADS-B path tiers for which subscription unlocks each prefix.
ULTRA path (/ultra/history/...) | MEGA path (/mega/history/...) | |
|---|---|---|
| Max window per request | 90 days | 365 days |
| Max flights per request | 1,000 | 2,000 |
| Max positions per request | 5,000 | 10,000 |
| Max track positions | 2,000 default | 5,000 default |
| RapidAPI plans | Pro, Ultra, Mega | Ultra, Mega |
| Endpoint | Page | When to use |
|---|---|---|
GET /ultra|mega/history/flights | Flight History Search | Find archived flights by tail, hex, callsign, or route |
GET /ultra|mega/history/flight/{flight_id} | Single Flight Detail | Full metadata for one flight from search results |
GET /ultra|mega/history/flight/{flight_id}/track | Flight Track | Gate-to-gate position replay for a known flight_id |
GET /ultra|mega/history/positions/{icao24} | Position History | Raw position snapshots by aircraft hex |
GET /ultra|mega/history/positions/registration/{registration} | Position History | Same as hex lookup but accepts a tail number |
GET /ultra|mega/history/airport/{icao}/traffic | Airport Traffic | Historical arrivals and departures at an airport |
Choosing a path. Pro subscribers use /ultra/history/... only (90-day windows). Ultra and Mega may call either prefix: use /ultra/history/... for lookbacks up to 90 days, or /mega/history/... when you need up to 365 days or higher per-request limits. The server returns 422 if your date range exceeds the path's cap — e.g. a 120-day window on /ultra/history/... is rejected even on an Ultra subscription.
Workflow. The typical chain is search → detail (metadata) or search → track (map replay). Search with at least one filter, take a flight_id from the results, then call detail or track. You cannot call detail or track without a flight_id from search. See Flight History Search → Integration for a runnable example.
Error responses
Shared gateway and platform errors: Error Handling. Plan-gate failures apply to every endpoint in this group:
401 / 403 — plan not entitled
Historical ADS-B is gated by RapidAPI subscription tier. The gateway may return 401 or 403 with a message string (not detail):
{
"message": "This endpoint is disabled for your subscription"
}| Situation | Fix |
|---|---|
| Basic or FREE Trial | Upgrade to Pro or above for /ultra/history/... |
Pro plan calling /mega/history/... | Upgrade to Ultra or Mega, or switch to /ultra/history/... |
| Missing headers | Add X-RapidAPI-Key and X-RapidAPI-Host — see Getting Started |
Do not retry 401/403 — fix the subscription or path prefix.
Endpoint-specific errors (404 flight, 404 registration, 422 filters/window/mismatch) are documented on the corresponding reference pages.
Integration guides
| Guide | Covers |
|---|---|
| Aircraft lookup | Tail number, photos, batch lookup |
| Performance specs | Spec card and type comparison |
| Live tracking | Statistics, nearby traffic, altitude bands |
| Historical tracks | Search, detail chain, airport traffic |
| Error handling | found:false, plan gates, empty feeds |
| Caching & monitoring | TTLs, polling, plan tiers |
Related: Live ADS-B · Rate Limits · Aircraft Lookup