Google’s new Flight Simulator lets you fly anywhere on Earth for free from your browser.
Google Earth has quietly launched one of those features that’s meant to kill five minutes and somehow ends up consuming an entire afternoon.
Its new Flight Simulator lets anyone jump into a browser, pick an aircraft and start flying around the planet for free.
All you need to do is open Google Earth and take off.
Using Google’s satellite imagery, 3D buildings and terrain data, the simulator lets you soar above cities, coastlines, mountain ranges and landmarks almost anywhere on Earth. It’s less about hardcore aviation realism and more about exploration, which is exactly what makes it so addictive.
One minute you’re flying over your hometown. The next you’re weaving between skyscrapers in Tokyo or tracing the Grand Canyon from above.
There is an AI connection here, although not where you might expect.
The flight controls themselves aren’t powered by artificial intelligence. Instead, AI helps build the world beneath you. Google uses machine learning to transform satellite imagery into detailed 3D cities and landscapes, reconstructing buildings, cleaning up imagery and stitching together millions of photographs into a seamless digital Earth.
In other words, you’re not flying an AI plane. You’re flying through an AI-built world.
Whether you’re a flight sim fanatic or just curious what your suburb looks like from 10,000 feet, Google’s latest addition is dangerously easy to lose time in.
The only real question is: where are you flying first?
