Spent a long time as a kid doing so. I still use Google Earth "Pro" today, so much better than the webapp.
Outside of Google, around that time, I used Google Earth for a 3D visualization tool for real flight data recorders, integrated into a larger browser-based system.
(Stack: Google Earth Plugin did the heaviest lifting, especially before there were better ways to render 3D in a browser window. The frontend used JS, HTML for instruments, and some kludges to work around some limitations of off-label use of Plugin. The backend was in Scheme, and retrieving and serving up cached data for this was one of the simplest of the things that the Scheme did in that large system. Aircraft 3D models were off-the-shelf, which I tweaked lightly in (IIRC) Google SketchUp.)
I worked on this but left a year ago. It was a product formerly by Sidewalk Labs and ported to work within Google Earth for over 2 years. Pretty sure it's abandoned now.
The place where I worked had a Keyhole machine for pulling up satellite maps and doing animations back when this was considered borderline science fiction.
Because the competition is already fierce. There's MS Flight Simulator and X-Plane on the commercial side, Flightgear on the open source side and geo-fs.com on the free-to-play side.
There is not much Google can actually gain from making their own flight simulator.
> Simplified flight physics: The flight simulator is designed for casual exploration rather than high-fidelity aerodynamic training.
Google made flying possible with 6 controls only, and it's a feature!
It works normally, but they indeed have no busines helping you prepare for ATP license exam with beautiful maps in the browser
It'a an arcade game and it's fun
Grand Theft Auto is now doing it, but Google Earth would make more sense because it can bring a more realistic environment.
https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1szcl5i/google_...
Use keyboard shortcuts to explore the world in a flight simulator.
While the flight simulator is designed to provide an immersive flying experience, the following limitations apply:
To launch the flight simulator, do the following:
Use the following keyboard shortcuts to control your aircraft.
| Action | Keyboard control | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Increase thrust | Page up or click on-screen indicator | Accelerates the aircraft's engine speed |
| Decrease thrust | Page down or click on-screen indicator | Decelerates the aircraft's engine speed |
| Pitch down (dive) | Down arrow | Directs the nose of the plane downward to decrease altitude |
| Pitch up (climb) | Up arrow | Directs the nose of the plane upward to gain altitude |
| Roll left (bank) | Left arrow | Banks the aircraft to the left |
| Roll right (bank) | Right arrow | Banks the aircraft to the right |
| Toggle mouse controls | Click inside simulation | Alternates between mouse-guided flight controls and keyboard controls |
If your aircraft makes direct impact with the ground terrain, the simulation will pause. Click You crashed! Restart to instantly restore your aircraft at a safe, playable altitude and coordinates.
Click the back arrow in the upper-left corner of the flight simulator to safely exit the simulation and return to the standard Google Earth map view.