diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index 8c146e4..349c53d 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ Vcs-Git: https://github.com/mutability/dump1090.git
 Package: dump1090-mutability
 Architecture: any
 Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}, ${misc:Depends}, adduser
-Recommends: python(>=2.5), cron | cron-daemon, curl, lighttpd
+Recommends: python(>=2.5), lighttpd
 Provides: fatsv-data-source
 Description: ADS-B Ground Station System for RTL-SDR
  Networked Aviation Mode S / ADS-B decoder/translator with RTL-SDR software
diff --git a/debian/cron-template b/debian/cron-template
deleted file mode 100644
index 38b1210..0000000
--- a/debian/cron-template
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,12 +0,0 @@
-## TEMPLATE FILE - This is used to create /etc/cron.d/dump1090-mutability ##
-## The first three lines will be discarded                                ##
-
-# Checks for updates to the VRS aircraft database once a day at around 5am;
-# when an update is available, downloads it and regenerates the JSON data
-# used by the webmap.
-
-# NB: the minute value below is randomly generated on install, to avoid 
-# all installs hitting the server at the same time.
-
-# m h dom mon dow user command
-@MIN@ 5 * * *  @USER@  test -x /usr/share/dump1090-mutability/update-aircraft-database.sh && /usr/share/dump1090-mutability/update-aircraft-database.sh --log-to-file
diff --git a/debian/dump1090-mutability.init b/debian/dump1090-mutability.init
index 1bb4adb..4ccbc36 100644
--- a/debian/dump1090-mutability.init
+++ b/debian/dump1090-mutability.init
@@ -126,7 +126,6 @@ do_start()
         fi
 
         # create logfile with the appropriate permissions if not already there
-        # (the cronjob running as DUMP1090_USER wants to append to it)
         touch $LOGFILE
         chown "$DUMP1090_USER":root $LOGFILE
 
diff --git a/debian/dump1090-mutability.postinst b/debian/dump1090-mutability.postinst
index 5038c52..30151d2 100644
--- a/debian/dump1090-mutability.postinst
+++ b/debian/dump1090-mutability.postinst
@@ -21,8 +21,6 @@ NAME=dump1090-mutability
 CONFIGFILE=/etc/default/$NAME
 SRCCONFIGFILE=$CONFIGFILE
 TEMPLATECONFIG=/usr/share/$NAME/config-template
-CRONFILE=/etc/cron.d/$NAME
-TEMPLATECRON=/usr/share/$NAME/cron-template
 SEDSCRIPT=$CONFIGFILE.sed.tmp
 
 subvar_raw() {
@@ -111,7 +109,7 @@ case "$1" in
             adduser --system --home /usr/share/$NAME --no-create-home --quiet "$RUNAS"
         fi
 
-        # create log if missing; change ownership if needed so the cronjob works
+        # create log if missing; change ownership if needed
         db_get $NAME/log-file
         touch $RET
         chown $RUNAS $RET
diff --git a/debian/dump1090-mutability.postrm b/debian/dump1090-mutability.postrm
index 6251a8f..625de17 100644
--- a/debian/dump1090-mutability.postrm
+++ b/debian/dump1090-mutability.postrm
@@ -22,8 +22,6 @@ set -e
 case "$1" in
     purge)
         rm -f /etc/default/dump1090-mutability
-        rm -f /etc/cron.d/dump1090-mutability
-        rm -rf /var/cache/dump1090-mutability
         ;;
 
     remove)
diff --git a/tools/update-aircraft-database.sh b/tools/update-aircraft-database.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index af1c502..0000000
--- a/tools/update-aircraft-database.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,109 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-
-# This script checks for a new version of BasicAircraftLookup from
-# the VRS website and, if one is available, downloads it and updates
-# the dump1090 webmap json files.
-
-set -e
-
-# defaults that can be overridden:
-VRS_URL=${VRS_URL:-http://www.virtualradarserver.co.uk/Files/BasicAircraftLookup.sqb.gz}
-CACHEDIR=${CACHEDIR:-/var/cache/dump1090-mutability}
-JSONDIR=${JSONDIR:-$CACHEDIR/db}
-SQBDIR=${SQBDIR:-$CACHEDIR/sqb}
-LOGFILE=${LOGFILE:-/var/log/dump1090-mutability.log}
-UPDATESCRIPT=${UPDATESCRIPT:-/usr/share/dump1090-mutability/vrs-basicaircraft-to-json.py}
-
-if [ -f /etc/default/dump1090-mutability ]
-then
-  . /etc/default/dump1090-mutability
-fi
-
-ETAGFILE=$SQBDIR/BasicAircraftLookup.sqb.etag
-SQBFILE=$SQBDIR/BasicAircraftLookup.sqb
-
-CHECKMODIFIED=true
-LOGTOFILE=false
-while [ "$#" -gt 0 ]
-do
-  case "$1" in
-    -f|--force) CHECKMODIFIED=false ;;
-    -l|--log-to-file) LOGTOFILE=true ;;
-    *) echo "unrecognized option: $1" >&2; exit 1 ;;
-  esac
-  shift
-done
-
-if $LOGTOFILE; then exec >>$LOGFILE 2>&1; fi
-
-log() {
-  date "+%c $*" >&2
-}
-
-mkdir -p $CACHEDIR $JSONDIR $SQBDIR
-rm -f $ETAGFILE.new $SQBFILE.new
-
-log "Checking VRS server for an updated database.."
-
-# get ETag
-curl --silent --fail --include --head $VRS_URL | grep ETag >$ETAGFILE.new
-
-# check for existing file
-RETRIEVE=true
-ARGS=""
-if $CHECKMODIFIED && [ -f $SQBFILE ]
-then
-  if [ -s $ETAGFILE -a -s $ETAGFILE.new ]
-  then
-    if cmp -s $ETAGFILE $ETAGFILE.new
-    then
-      log "Database not modified."
-      RETRIEVE=false
-    else
-      log "Database modified, will retrieve a new copy."
-    fi
-  else
-    # do an if-modified-since
-    log "Database possibly modified, will try to retrieve a new copy."
-    ARGS="-z $SQBFILE"
-  fi
-fi
-
-if $RETRIEVE
-then
-  log "Retrieving database.."
-  curl --silent --fail --remote-time --retry 2 $ARGS -o $SQBFILE.new $VRS_URL
-  mv $ETAGFILE.new $ETAGFILE
-  if [ -f $SQBFILE.new ]
-  then
-    log "Decompressing database.."
-    zcat $SQBFILE.new >$SQBFILE
-    touch -r $SQBFILE.new $SQBFILE
-    rm $SQBFILE.new
-  else
-    log "Database not modified."
-  fi
-fi
-
-UPDATE=true
-if $CHECKMODIFIED
-then
-  if test -f $JSONDIR/last_update; then
-    if ! test $SQBFILE -nt $JSONDIR/last_update; then UPDATE=false; fi
-  fi
-fi
-
-if $UPDATE
-then
-  log "Updating JSON files from database.."
-  mkdir -p $JSONDIR/new
-  $UPDATESCRIPT $SQBFILE $JSONDIR/new
-  rm -f $JSONDIR/*.json
-  mv $JSONDIR/new/*.json $JSONDIR/
-  touch -r $SQBFILE $JSONDIR/last_update
-  rmdir $JSONDIR/new
-  log "Done."
-else
-  log "No update to JSON files needed."
-fi
-