Flying

The Spirit of St. Louis in Google Earth

December 16, 2013

Colin Hazlehurst has contributed some excellent tours to Google Earth over the years. His most impressive is likely the recreation of Captain James Cook’s circumnavigation of New Zealand, but he’s also covered items such as the 1825 Greek Independence battle.

He recently came across a great model of Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis airplane in the 3D Warehouse, read up more about him on Wikipedia, and then decided to recreate the famous flight in Google Earth.

The result is a very impressive tour, part of which can be seen in this video:

His plan is to present the 33.5 hour journey in about 335 minutes of animation, in other words, flying the model at 600 knots instead of the 100 knots at which the Spirit of St. Louis travelled.

He’s created this KMZ file, generated using a variant of the TourMaker tool that he’s developed for this kind of Google Earth animation. It still has some way to go, but is quite impressive already.

Great work, Colin!

Taiwan from Above

December 11, 2013

Steven Ho has done some great work with Google Earth over the years. He’s shown us tours of mountaineering trips, a panorama from the top of Mount Everest, a tribute to Steve Jobs and much more.

A friend of his, Chi Po-Lin, has created a documentary titled “Taiwan from Above“. Steven has taken the amazing aerial trips from the documentary and recreated them in Google Earth. Specifically, Steven says:

I used two windows – one in, one out. The GPS route I got from Chi, which he made one day in 2008. This trip started from Puli, then flew to Central Mountains , Yushan Mountain, Sun Moon Lake and then back. It is a 240 km long, 1 hour 32 minute flight time trip.

You can read more about it it on Steven’s blog, or try it for yourself using the Google Earth Plugin on this page. The plugin version has varying levels of success depending on your browser, so you can also download the KMZ files to load them directly in Google Earth:

Great work, Steven!

Falcon UAV drones assisting with flooding in Colorado – until FEMA stops them

September 17, 2013

A few days ago we shared the Boulder, Colorado crisis response map with you, as the area is continuing to be inundated with rain and flooding. As they continue to fight the water, another interesting battle is emerging: Falcon UAV against the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Falcon has a hand-launched drone aircraft that can fly for roughly an hour and automatically generate very accurate maps of the ground. Here is a quick video showing how the drone is launched:

As for the results, you can see a snippet of their work in Colorado below or download the KMZ file here (warning: 500MB) to see it in Google Earth. It’s quite remarkable, especially considering the speed with which the imagery can be captured, georeferenced and shared.

Unfortunately, FEMA has told them they’re no longer allowed to fly the drone. In fact, they were told that their “request to fly drones was not only denied but more specifically we were told by FEMA that anyone flying drones would be arrested.”

As IEEE Spectrum is quick to point out, we’re only hearing one side of the story. FEMA may have a very legitimate reason for grounding the drone. However, considering all circumstances it seems that it would be quite valuable to have that aircraft capturing fresh imagery for the area.

I’m hoping that FEMA releases a statement of some sort about this issue, as it’s reflecting quite poorly on them so far. Check out the full article for yourself over on IEEE Spectrum.

The Google Earth Flight Simulator

August 13, 2013

When Google Earth was first released, one of the first thoughts that many users had was “wow, this could be an amazing tool for a flight simulator”. With the the release of Google Earth 4.2 back in 2007, Google made their wish come true and added a flight simulator mode to Google Earth. To try it out for yourself, simply go to [Tools] –> [Enter Flight Simulator] and dive in!

Not long after it came out, Frank posted a list of tips and tricks for using the simulator, as it can be a bit tricky to get started.

Start up the flight simulator as described above. I recommend you choose the SR-22 plane to start (it is a much slower plane than the F-16, and will help you learn the controls). Choose any airport, or just the default “Katmandu”. If you don’t have a joystick, you can’t select one. Next hit Start flight.
You will see the HUD (Head Up Display) in green (click here for a guide to the HUD indicators). Make your window dimension roughly square (otherwise you may not see all of the HUD display elements).
To get started, hold down the Page Up key briefly (this will add power to your plane). The throttle indicator is on the lower left (triangle should be at the top for full throttle).
To control your direction on the ground, use the comma and period keys on your keyboard to apply left and right brakes. Just touch them briefly to change direction left and right.
Important tip – mouse control – it’s best to use the mouse to control the plane (unless you have a joy stick). I wouldn’t bother with trying to fly with the keyboard. Simply click the mouse once in the center of the view and you should see your cursor change to a “+” sign. Don’t move your cursor outside the window or you will lose control! The mouse will only control your plane in the air, and if the cursor is inside the Google Earth window.
Taking off – Once your plane is going faster down the runway, try moving the mouse back slightly from center. If you’re going fast enough you should take off. Remember: just make small motions with the mouse close to the center of the screen. Once you have the wings level, put the mouse in the center. A lot of first time fliers have a tendency to over correct.
To make a turn – move the mouse slightly to the right or left and when your plane is tilted, pull back slightly. When you’ve made the turn you want, push the mouse back to the center then the other direction to tilt the plane back to level.
Pausing – If you want to stop for a moment, simply hit the space key on the keyboard and it will pause the simulator. Hit space again to resume.
Start higher – Position your view in Google Earth in the normal mode so you are at least 30,000 feet above ground. Tilt your view so you are looking at the horizon. Then restart the flight simulator mode (use Tools->Enter Flight Simulator…, or the keyboard shortcut CTRL-ALT-A) so you can choose what plane to use, and other options. Choose Select your start position->Current view in the window, and then choose Start flight. You should add power by hitting the Page Up key after starting it up. Now you can practice flying a while before you hit the ground!
Landing – it is possible to land the plane. But, I’ll leave that for advanced tutorials.

Your other great option for flight in Google Earth is Xavier Tassin’s amazing GE Flight Simulator site, powered by the Google Earth Plugin. It’s quite an amazing site with dozens of aircraft to choose from (including paragliders and hot air balloons), real-time weather, and live multi-player (see other users flying around near you).

It also has a creative multimonitor mode, for those of you with more than one screen that are looking for a more immersive experience. You can try it yourself right now at gefs-online.com.

Tracking the Boeing Dreamliner in Google Earth

July 11, 2013

The 787 Dreamliner Flight Tracker is a simple yet robust site that shows the current location of every 787 Dreamliner around the world. Not only does it provide a real-time list of current flights, but you can click on their Google Earth view to see an impressive use of the Google Earth Plugin that shows off the flight paths and locations:

Once on the map of planes, you can select one of them to get a real-time view of that flight. You’ll see a 3D model of the plane (customized for each airline), with multiple views to select. It even provides sound to make the experience more realistic.

Check it out for yourself at flighttracker.newairplane.com.

(via Google Maps Mania)