Google Hides Flight Simulator In Earth

The Internet (the anonymous collective) has given credit to University of Cape Town student Marco Gallotta, a computer science major, with discovering that by pressing the right keys while checking out Google Sky (they’re totally different keys for OS X, mind you) users are given a choice of flying an F-16 Viper, for those that like to boogie, or a Cirrus SR22 prop plane, for those that prefer the scenic route.

(Editor’s note – Now I’m not one to perpetuate a stereotype or anything, but um, Marco, a computer science major, was tinkering with Google Earth and blogging about it on a Friday night, and not tinkering with, well, other, prettier things on campus. Just sayin’. Come to college in the States, Marco…with a name like that and a funky accent, you won’t have time to tinker. Just sayin’. — Jason)

It’s unclear why Google sneaked a gem like this in there, but seeing as it has a bunch of apocryphal commands to find it, the flight simulator was intended for guys just like Marco. Not exactly the mile-high club they were talking about.

Google hasn’t totally disowned it. At least since the discovery, they’ve put up a Google Earth Flight Simulator keyboard control guide. Unsurprisingly, there are no instructions on how to unhook a brassiere.

There are flight demonstrations on YouTube, however, if you’d like to view them. From the videos, it looks a bit videogame-ish, and reports say the keyboard and mouse controls are a little difficult. So better buy a joystick. 

I’ll give it six weeks before somebody complains that terrorists are using it for training exercises. Until then, cheers.