Google Earth Easter Egg: Flight Simulator

Maverick · Sep 3, 2007

Great time killing game or next gen terrorist training application -ohmy

Google Earth Easter Egg: Flight Simulator

Apparently, the latest version of Google Earth has an easter egg: a flight simulator. It's not quite like Microsoft Flight Simulator, but it's a promising start.

How to see this feature. Make sure you have Google Earth 4.2. Open the application, click on the globe and then press Ctrl+Alt+A. You should see this dialog that lets you choose one of the two aircrafts (F16 "Viper" and SR22) and an airport.

Here's the initial view from London Heathrow Airport:

... and here's a nice view from Kathmandu:

To fly, you need to read this list of keyboard shortcuts, but you can also use a mouse or a joystick. "To disable or enable mouse controls, left click (single click on a Mac). Once mouse controls are active, the pointer shape changes to a cross on your screen."

Marco Gallotta, who found this feature, has some tricks: "Moving on though, you can get a quick start by holding Page Up for a few seconds to increase to maximum thrust (thrust meter is the left bar of the lower-left meters). Once you've accelerated to a sufficient velocity use the arrow keys to take-off. The keys are in reverse as one would expect with any flight simulator, so use the down arrow to take-off. When you've gained enough altitude then stabalise the aircraft to a straight flight path. It can be rather tricky to get the hang of as the controls are quite sensitive."

This easter egg could become a standard feature in the next versions of Google Earth and it will bring even more fun to the application.
Click to expand...

wind2000 · Sep 3, 2007

Good find, imma gonna try that when i get the time... looks promising.

Maverick · Sep 3, 2007

So which building are ya targeting to crash in -evil
Oeps ... I mean where are ya planning to fly to -bigsmile

wind2000 · Sep 3, 2007

Not too sure, depends on my mood... -evil

Maverick · Sep 3, 2007

wind2000 said: ↑

Not too sure, depends on my mood... -evil
Click to expand...

Too big for ConAir -evil

wind2000 · Sep 3, 2007

The images are so clear... wonder when the government will be banning this tools tho.

Knoctur_nal · Sep 3, 2007

pretty slick move by google.

Google Earth Easter Egg: Flight Simulator

Maverick Lord Vader

wind2000 Self Schemata

Maverick Lord Vader

wind2000 Self Schemata

Maverick Lord Vader

wind2000 Self Schemata

Knoctur_nal |Force 10 from Navarone|