FalconView is a free and open source mapping system created by the Georgia Tech Research Institute for the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems. It supports the display of aeronautical charts, satellite images, and elevation maps. It also supports a large number of overlay types that can be displayed over any map background. In addition, it supports many raster and vector data formats. Moving map is also supported if users have a connected GPS unit. The sky view mode allows users to fly through terrain with overlays by keyboard or joystick control.
FalconView is an integral part of the Portable Flight Planning Software (PFPS). This software suite includes FalconView, Combat Flight Planning Software (CFPS), Combat Weapon Delivery Software (CWDS), Combat Air Drop Planning Software (CAPS), and several other software packages built by various software contractors.
FalconView is not a general purpose GIS tool but uses GIS techniques under the covers to perform similar analysis without adding complexity for the users. A drawback of FalconView is that it is a complicated program with many features but has a non-intuitive interface. Documentation is currently limited to the help file, which is clearly intended for users who have already familiar with the program. In addition, no manuals or other documentation is currently available.
: FalconView displays a wide variety of maps and geospatial data from a wide variety of sources. It supports a large number of overlay types that can be displayed over any map background. The current overlay set is oriented toward mission planning and is targeted toward aviators and aviation support personnel. FalconView has advantages over most of the free mapping software products because it can be used without an active internet connection. It also has the ability to display and edit ArcMap .mxd files.
FalconView is extensible and it has a plug-in architecture. The FalconView Software Developers Kit (SDK) is a collection of documents and sample code to aid developers in writing tools that either run inside of FalconView or its components in their tools. So far, hundreds of registered developers have started to create plug-ins for FalconView. For more information about developing plug-ins, please visit
https://www.falconview.org/trac/FalconView/wiki/FVDev
Geographic information science, widely used by military, including Air National Guard (ANG), United States Air Force, Department of Defense, United States Special Operations Command, and United States Forest Service. In Late 2008, FalconView goes free and open source for corporate, environmental, government, and other users. For more information about various projects and programs involving FalconView, Please visit https://www.falconview.org/trac/FalconView/wiki/FalconViewUsage
The federal government has funded the development of FalconView and therefore it is a nonproprietary “government off-the-shell” (GOTS) application and is free of any license fees for government use. In late 2008, Georgia Tech was funded to develop and deploy an open source software version of FalconView and distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). This open source version includes most of the functionality of the GOTS system, excluding only a few overlays considered to be exclusively related to military mission planning.