Building Reliable Aviation APIs

Aviation software demands reliability. When you're building tools that operators depend on, downtime isn't just an inconvenience—it can ground operations.

Design Principles

Over the years, we've developed a set of principles for building aviation APIs:

1. Fail Gracefully

Aviation systems need to degrade gracefully. If your weather service is down, the app should still show cached data rather than crashing.

async function getWeather(airport: string) {
  try {
    const fresh = await fetchWeatherAPI(airport);
    await cache.set(`weather:${airport}`, fresh);
    return fresh;
  } catch (error) {
    const cached = await cache.get(`weather:${airport}`);
    if (cached) return { ...cached, stale: true };
    throw error;
  }
}

2. Version Your APIs

Aviation regulations change. Aircraft configurations change. Your API needs to evolve without breaking existing integrations.

We use URL-based versioning:

• /api/v1/flights - Legacy support
• /api/v2/flights - Current version with new fields

3. Document Everything

Aviation has specific terminology. Your API documentation should include:

• Field definitions with units (feet, knots, nautical miles)
• Data sources and update frequencies
• Error codes and recovery procedures
• Rate limits and quotas

Authentication Patterns

For aviation APIs, we recommend:

API Keys for server-to-server communication. Simple, auditable, easy to rotate.

OAuth 2.0 for user-facing applications where you need to act on behalf of a user.

mTLS for high-security integrations like maintenance systems.

const authenticateRequest = async (req: Request) => {
  const apiKey = req.headers.get("X-API-Key");
  
  if (!apiKey) {
    throw new AuthError("API key required");
  }
  
  const client = await db.clients.findByApiKey(apiKey);
  
  if (!client || client.revoked) {
    throw new AuthError("Invalid API key");
  }
  
  return client;
};

Rate Limiting

Aviation data can be expensive to compute. Protect your infrastructure with intelligent rate limiting:

• Per-client limits based on subscription tier
• Endpoint-specific limits for expensive operations
• Burst allowances for legitimate traffic spikes

Monitoring and Alerting

What to monitor:

• Latency percentiles (p50, p95, p99)
• Error rates by endpoint and client
• Data freshness for cached content
• Upstream dependencies (FAA, weather services)

Infrastructure Choices

For aviation APIs, we typically recommend:

• Go or Rust for high-performance data processing
• PostgreSQL for relational data with PostGIS for geospatial
• Redis for caching and rate limiting
• VPS or bare metal for predictable performance

Cloud functions can work for low-traffic endpoints, but aviation workloads often have consistent traffic patterns that favor reserved capacity.

Conclusion

Building aviation APIs is about reliability first, features second. Operators need to trust that your service will be there when they need it.

Questions about API design? We're happy to chat: andrew@weflyhq.com.