FlightZone AI

FlightZone AI is a full-stack flight operations platform built for airline dispatchers: live flight tracking, weather-aware route optimization, and role-based admin tooling. Built as a team capstone project for CS 3354 (Software Engineering).

Live demo: flight-zone-sepia.vercel.app — frontend only. Sign-in and data require the backend running locally (see below).

What it does

Dispatchers need to see what's happening across a route network and make fast calls when weather or congestion threatens a flight. FlightZone AI gives them:

• Live dashboard — real-time stats on active, delayed, and on-time flights, with a recent activity feed
• Flight map — an interactive Leaflet map of tracked routes with live status
• Route optimization — a scoring engine that weighs weather risk, airport congestion, and fuel cost to recommend the best of several route options for a flight
• Analytics — on-time performance and fuel burn trends by route
• Alerts — system and operational alerts with read/unread tracking
• Admin panel — user management, restricted to admin roles

Architecture

Frontend — React app with route-based pages, a shared Axios client that auto-attaches JWTs, and a protected-route wrapper for auth-gated pages.

Backend — Node/Express API backed by Postgres, with:

• JWT authentication and role-based middleware (admin, dispatcher, pilot)
• Live flight data via the Aviationstack API, polled on a cron schedule
• Weather risk scoring via OpenWeatherMap, cached to stay within free-tier limits
• A route optimization engine (POST /api/optimize) that scores candidate routes on weather risk (40%), congestion (30%), and fuel cost (30%)

src/
├── pages/
│   ├── LoginPage.jsx
│   ├── DashboardPage.jsx
│   ├── FlightsPage.jsx              # live map view
│   ├── AnalyticsPage.jsx            # on-time / fuel charts
│   ├── OptimizationPage.jsx         # route optimization
│   ├── RouteRecommendationsPage.jsx
│   ├── AlertsPage.jsx
│   ├── AdminPage.jsx
│   └── ContactPage.jsx
├── context/AuthContext.jsx
├── components/{AppShell,Sidebar,ProtectedRoute}.jsx
└── api.js

server/
├── routes/{auth,flights,optimize,alerts,admin,contact}.js
├── services/{aviationService,weatherService}.js
├── middleware/authMiddleware.js
└── database/{schema.sql,seed.sql}

Tech stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React, React Router, Axios, Leaflet, Recharts
Backend	Node.js, Express, PostgreSQL
Auth	JWT, bcrypt
External APIs	Aviationstack (flight data), OpenWeatherMap (weather risk)
Deployment	Vercel (frontend)

Running locally

Backend

cd server
npm install
cp .env.example .env      # set DATABASE_URL and API keys
npm run seed               # create schema and seed data
npm run dev                 # http://localhost:5000

Frontend

npm install
npm start                   # http://localhost:3000

Test accounts

Role	Employee ID	Password
Admin	EMP001	Admin@1234
Dispatcher	EMP002	Dispatch@1234
Pilot	EMP003	Pilot@1234

Team

Built by a four-person team covering frontend foundation/auth, the flights dashboard, the backend and optimization engine, and alerts/admin/QA.