Along with the Sky, Google had also secretly packed a flight simulator into the latest version of Google Earth. This hidden feature is no where mentioned in the release notes or product help. It lets you fly F16 “Viper” or the four seater SR22 propeller plane over Google’s extensive satellite imagery.
To run the game for the first time, you’ll have to press Ctrl+Alt+A or if you are using Mac hit Command+Option+A. You will notice a popup which lets you choose aircraft, location or enable joystick support. Control instructions for the aircraft have been provided on this page.
After completing, you can exit the game by pressing “exit flight simulator” button on the upper right corner of the window. Now, you can re-enter the game from Tools > Enter Flight Simulator
There is nothing remarkable about the game play, except for the fact that it lets your fly over real satellite imagery, which means you could fly over real pictures of any location. It’s not an earth shattering feature, but still it’s a clever game to be included into Google Earth.
Unlike like other flight simulators, I had a hard time handling my F16 “Viper”. Maybe, I need to go through the flying instructions once again. It was still fun flying the plane over my city and then crashing it on the ground!
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