Google Earth Has a Hidden Flight Simulator

**TL;DR:** Google Earth Has a Hidden Flight Simulator

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Titles like Microsoft Flight Simulator can offer truly gorgeous visual experiences, but there's an awful lot of simulation involved before you get to the flight. You have to learn a lot about cockpit controls, take-offs and landings, and other simulator-y stuff before you're allowed to soar into the sky and see the planet from a bird's eye view.

That's one of the reasons that the flight simulator mode that just launched in Google Earth on the web is likely to be so popular—in just a couple of clicks, you can be zooming through canyons or across cities, without worrying about what kind of plane you're in or how your flaps are set. As Google mentions , this isn't a completely new experience.

It's actually been ported over from the Google Earth desktop app, but there, it's rather hidden—more of an Easter egg than a full-blown feature—and offers much more of a flight simulator feel. For example, you need to choose a plane, and figure out how to take off in it, before you get to the eye-popping visuals. This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. Now that this simplified version is available in the web app for free, and it can be run i

Source: Lifehacker

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Last updated: June 16, 2026.

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