WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...
Just in time for the new academic year, a guy called Marco has found that the ever-wonderful Google have hidden away a whole flight simulator in the latest version of Google Earth! It’s surprisingly sophisticated for a hidden feature. 
For those of you who just want to get straight to it, press (together, with Caps Lock on) Ctrl+Alt+A on Windows/Linux, or Command+Option+A on the Mac. A full list of commands for using the flight simulator is here. This is the screen you get when you press the 3-button combo:
You’re give the choice of two different aircraft and where to take off from. Optionally, you can just start flying from your current location). I chose London Heathrow:
Unfortunately, this was just before a nosedive straight into the runway:
This has great potential for use in the classroom, but I’m going to have to a) use a screen-capture program for create my fly-bys of important places beforehand, or b) perfect my flying techniques. Otherwise I’d get laughed at, which I don’t mind, but could waste a lot of lesson time… 
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