Google Earth Flight Simulator

insidedesign writes "Blogger Marco has recently discovered that the newest version of Google Earth includes a flight simulator. Though simple in comparison to full-blown simulators, Google Earth's is fun and addictive. To get started, press Ctrl+Alt+A for the initial dialog (on OS X, Command+Option+A). Then choose your plane (F16 or SR22) and initial airport. Joysticks are supported; it has even been reported that force feedback works. The game's controls are sensitive so it takes some getting used to. Here are all the available controls. For a quick overview, check out this YouTube video."

Comments

Re:Pentagon?

[Cervantes]

Is it possible to fly the plane into the Pentagon while hitting light poles along the way? It's hard to tell, as soon as you approach the Pentagon things get really fuzzy and 8-bit.

Terrorism?

[German_Dupree]

I can just see the U.S. government attacking Google as a "terrorist training ground".

Everyone knows that if it teaches you to fly an airplane, it's an Islam extremist hotbed.

Wise Guys!

[stox]

The only airport they list for Chicago is Meigs. The only airport that no longer exists in Chicago.

Re:Wise Guys!

[hottoh]

We can all thank Mayor Daily for the airport distruction (I think I spelled the Mayor's name wrong, but correcting it is not worth the effort).

Paraphrasing the reason for the destruction, "the people of Chicago live in fear of terrorist attacks, and I need to do what I can to keep Chicago safe."

Secretly planning to destroy the airport in the early morning hours acheives that end?

Re:Wise Guys!

[stox]

Yes, you did spell the mayor's name wrong, the correct spelling is "Emperor Daley." Mein Führer and All Hail the King would also be acceptable.

Re:Wise Guys!

[Purity Of Essence]

Maybe that's a nod to subLOGIC's FS2, the first home flight sim to feature real locations and airports. Chicago's Meigs Field was the player's default starting point.

Re:Doom in Microsoft Office

[brteag00]

> If I remember right, one version of Excel also had a flight simulator.

Yep, Excel '97 had a flight sim.
  - Hit 'F5'
  - Jump to cell X97:L97
  - Press 'TAB'
  - Hold down and
  - Press the "Chart Wizard" button on the toolbar.

I bet the graphics in this one are a little better, though.

So does it work...

[dbolger]

...with Google Sky?

Start thrusters, take off, aim nose towards Andromeda, sit back and wait for two million years, find an airport, land.

Sweet! :D

Sweet

[John Frink]

Just tried a flight, shows hills and everything. Way more than I expected from an easter egg. Kudos to the guy who dreamed this up.

Re:This would be a great post for April 1

[Goaway]

Quoting the very page you linked to:

Once you have entered flight simulator mode for the first time, you can re-enter the mode by choosing Tools > Enter Flight Simulator.

So no, it's not in the Tools menu by default, and yes, it's an easter egg.

Time to update the old corollary?

[Ant P.]

All programs expand indefinitely until they include a flight simulator. And email.

Re:Doesn't work for me

[Bob Gelumph]

Zoom to San Francisco airport and try it from there.
It is weird, but it works.
Also, use fn-up and fn-down in place of page up and page down on a powerbook.

Yeah, it's all fun at first

[jollyreaper]

But I for one am going to be shitting my pants when they update the ground textures to account for the bombing missions I flew in the flight simulator. I will be shitting my pants once again when I leave my house and notice the houses I targeted in my neighborhood are no longer there.

Google "20% time" at work?

[cashman73]

I wonder if this is one of those projects that came out of Google's "20% time" policy, where engineers are given 20% of their time (one day per week) to work on a project of "personal interest"? It's plausible, since this isn't exactly a main feature of google earth. Then again, Google Sky might have been a 20% time project, too?

Bill Gates is probably going to be real pissed if this starts eating into his M$ Flight Sim profits, especially if (a) this remains free and (b) Google expands it to include more aircraft and options.

On another note, I wonder if they could make this a network thing, so perhaps we could have dog fights with other users in the air? But the feds would probably put a stop to that, since that would also require Google to install live missiles and bombs in the simulator, allowing people to start bombing various structures in google earth,...

Re:Might I be the first to say...

[Bluesman]

It's Google's Earth, so the Mac actually has a long way to go to be a good citizen on it.

Re:Now maybe I should wait until tomorrow to try i

[iluvcapra]

There isn't a lot of air at FL500, so your IAS is gonna be pretty low.

Quickie: IAS or Indicated Airspeed is a flight dynamic that measures the unidirectional force of air along an aircraft's angle of attack and presents this data as a speed; it is measured with a "pitot tube," a metal tube on the wing or nose of a plane that collects air and measures the amount of force being applied down the tube. At standard temp and pressure, with no wind, and with the aircraft's angle of attack parallel to the surface, this number will theoretically give you the speed at which you are traveling along the ground. As ambient pressure goes down (say with altitude), IAS for a given ground speed goes down; as wind picks up, depending on the wind's bearing to the aircraft's orientation, IAS can go up or down (A plane flying a 100 kts headwind and 100 kts IAS will, all other things being equal, in fact have a ground speed of zero). As angle of attack increases, ground speed goes down. You might be flying at Mach 2, but if you're pointed straight up, your ground speed will be zero.

Look out, Flight Simulator!

[mcrbids]

I'm a private pilot, and the other simulators disappoint. They are good for practicing Instrument procedure, and to a certain extent, airplane maneuvers, but for just plane fun (pun intended) they are weak.

Most of the joy of flying General Aviation (small) planes is the view - nothing like it anywhere else, including that commercial jet. (which rockets up to 45,000 feet in 10 minutes where you can't see jack) Flight simulators have typically given depictions of the landscape - patterns that are rough analogies of what you'd actually find out the window.

But this is the real McCoy! Resolution is still weak, and the plane handling characteristics are lousy, but when I'm flying 5,500 VFR over the East Bay, it actually IS the East Bay. I noticed that once you've started the Easter Egg, you can re-launch from any view, which let me spin a few circles above local Oroville, CA.

I recognized everything and had no trouble finding the local airport, and successfully landed the very first try in the SR-22. Since I've never flown an SR22, I had to stall it first in the air to figure out what my approach speed should be - about 70 knots seemed about right.

Really, if they put some spit and polish on this, it could give FS X a real run for its money - for just plane fun, it already rivals FS X!

Crash

[plams]

Shit. I just accidently crashed my SR22 into the Google Campus. I hope they don't log these kind of things..

Re:This would be a great post for April 1

[Purity Of Essence]

You might try tinkering with one of these files, I'd start with this first:

%PROGRAMFILES%\Google\Google Earth\res\flightsim\controller\generic.ini

These others in the same directory seem to be for specific brands of controller:

genius_maxfighter_f16u.ini
speed_link_black_hawk.ini
speed_link_cougar_flightstick.ini

From generic.ini

axes = [
    A1 set(DE, 1.0, 0.0)
    A0 set(DA, 1.0, 0.0)
    A3 set(DP_0, -0.5, 0.5)
    A2 set(DR, 1.0, 0.0)
]

povs = [
    P0 set(HAngle, 1.0, 0.0)
]

It looks like:
A0..3 = the four axes
P0 = hat switch
DE = elevators
DA = ailerons
DP_0 = power
DR = rudder
HAngle = head angle

I swapped A2 and A3 and everything was hunky-dory!

Check out the other *.ini files and see the there are also button press and release events that can be programmed:
B0..n = buttons

Proceed at your own peril. And don't be a dummy like me, backup your files first!

If you want to get really adventurous here are the flight characteristics of the available aircraft (these are also plain text files):
%PROGRAMFILES%\Google\Google Earth\res\flightsim\aircraft\*.acf

It's like Christmas!