System and method for verifying aircraft position information

1. A method of verifying aircraft position information based on automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) messages, the method comprising:

receiving, by a processor from a system, a tamper-resistant distributed public ledger of authenticated flight plan data, wherein an entry for a flight of an aircraft in the tamper-resistant distributed public ledger includes an aircraft identifier of the aircraft, a flight path for the flight, and a hash value to enable validation of the entry;

receiving, by the processor, an ADS-B message indicating an identifier of a first aircraft and indicating a position of the first aircraft, wherein the first aircraft is distinct from the system;

accessing, by the processor, the tamper-resistant distributed public ledger to determine whether the identifier of the first aircraft corresponds to the aircraft identifier of a particular entry in the tamper-resistant distributed public ledger;

conditioned upon a determination that the identifier of the first aircraft corresponds to the aircraft identifier of the particular entry and that the particular entry is authentic based on the hash value of the particular entry, comparing, by the processor, the position to the flight path indicated by the particular entry;

selecting, by the processor, a characteristic of an icon corresponding to the first aircraft based on a determination whether the position corresponds to the flight path;

displaying, on a display device and based on the characteristic, the icon at a location corresponding to the position, wherein an aircraft cockpit of a second aircraft comprises the display device, wherein the display device displays a plurality of icons corresponding to a plurality of flights in an airspace around the second aircraft; and

responsive to a determination that the position fails to correspond to the flight path or that the authenticated flight plan data is not stored in the tamper-resistant distributed public ledger, transmitting a message to a flight management system to confirm the position of the first aircraft.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying an updated display on the display device based on a response from the flight management system.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising, based on the response confirming the position of the first aircraft, modifying the characteristic of the icon in the updated display.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising, based on the response indicating that the first aircraft does not exist or that the position is incorrect, removing the icon in the updated display.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the position corresponds to the flight path based on the position being within a threshold distance of an expected position along the flight path.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein each icon of the plurality of icons has a corresponding characteristic selected based on a corresponding determination of whether a corresponding position corresponds to a corresponding flight path.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic comprises a color, a border, a shading, a size, a shape, or a combination thereof, of the icon.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein entries in the tamper-resistant distributed public ledger are not encrypted.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein each entry in the tamper-resistant distributed public ledger includes flight plan data for one or more aircraft during a particular time period.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the entry for the flight of the aircraft further includes a point of arrival, a point of departure, or both.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the hash value corresponds to the entry, to a previous entry in the tamper-resistant distributed public ledger, or both.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein entries in the tamper-resistant distributed public ledger are generated by the flight management system conditioned upon an authentication of corresponding flight plan data by the flight management system.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the flight management system maintains the tamper-resistant distributed public ledger in accordance with an entry adding scheme.

14. An apparatus for verifying aircraft position information based on automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) messages, the apparatus comprising:

an interface configured to receive a tamper-resistant distributed public ledger of authenticated flight plan data from a system, wherein an entry for a flight of an aircraft in the tamper-resistant distributed public ledger includes an aircraft identifier of the aircraft, a flight path for the flight, and a hash value to enable validation of the entry;

a receiver configured to receive an ADS-B message indicating an identifier of a first aircraft and indicating a position of the first aircraft, wherein the first aircraft is distinct from the system;

a processor coupled to the receiver and configured to:

access the tamper-resistant distributed public ledger to determine whether the identifier of the first aircraft corresponds to the aircraft identifier of a particular entry in the tamper-resistant distributed public ledger;

conditioned upon a determination that the identifier of the first aircraft corresponds to the aircraft identifier of the particular entry and that the particular entry is authentic based on the hash value of the particular entry, compare the position to a flight path indicated by the particular entry; and

select a characteristic of an icon corresponding to the first aircraft based on a determination whether the position corresponds to the flight path; and

a display device coupled to the processor and configured to display the icon based on the characteristic and at a location corresponding to the position, wherein an aircraft cockpit of a second aircraft comprises the display device, wherein the display device displays a plurality of icons corresponding to a plurality of flights in an airspace around the second aircraft; and

a transmitter configured to, responsive to a determination that the position fails to correspond to the flight path or that the authenticated flight plan data is not stored in the tamper-resistant distributed public ledger, transmit a message to a flight management system to confirm the position of the first aircraft.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the processor is further configured to update the characteristic of the icon based on a response from the flight management system.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 , wherein the response indicates whether the position passed verification by the flight management system.

17. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the message includes the identifier of the first aircraft and the position of the first aircraft.

18. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the message is configured to cause the flight management system to transmit a message to the first aircraft.

19. A computer-readable storage device storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving a tamper-resistant distributed public ledger of authenticated flight plan data from a system, wherein an entry for a flight of an aircraft in the tamper-resistant distributed public ledger includes an aircraft identifier of the aircraft, a flight path for the flight, and a hash value to enable validation of the entry;

receiving an automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) message indicating an identifier of a first aircraft and indicating a position of the first aircraft, wherein the first aircraft is distinct from the system;

accessing the tamper-resistant distributed public ledger to determine whether the identifier of the first aircraft corresponds to the aircraft identifier of a particular entry in the tamper-resistant distributed public ledger;

conditioned upon a determination that the identifier of the first aircraft corresponds to the aircraft identifier of the particular entry and that the particular entry is authentic based on the hash value of the particular entry, comparing the position to a flight path indicated by the particular entry;

selecting a characteristic of an icon corresponding to the first aircraft based on a determination whether the position corresponds to the flight path;

initiating display, on a display device and based on the characteristic, of the icon at a location corresponding to the position, wherein an aircraft cockpit of a second aircraft comprises the display device, wherein the display device displays a plurality of icons corresponding to a plurality of flights in an airspace around the second aircraft; and

responsive to a determination that the position fails to correspond to the flight path or that the authenticated flight plan data is not stored in the tamper-resistant distributed public ledger, transmitting a message to a flight management system to confirm the position of the first aircraft.

20. The computer-readable storage device of claim 19 , wherein the authenticated flight plan data corresponds to a particular geographic region.