Google Earth: One truly amazing mashup

Posted by Crispee | February 26, 2009 | Filed under Google Earth, mashups

In the recent release of Google Earth 5, there was a feature included that seemed to hold a ton of potential even if it needed the public at large to really unlock it.  That feature is the new and improved “touring” engine that it included with the capability to record moving tours with audio and pictures. I had seen a few proof-of-concept type tours but it wasn’t until I watched the Flight 1549 tour that it truly hit me what kind of revolutionary mashup this feature could become.

You start above New York City and after hitting play you hear the plane talking to the air traffic controller.  It is soon apparent that he is still on the ground as you swoop in and actually enter the 3D plane model on the runway.  The aircraft is cleared for takeoff and you slowly begin to taxi and then takeoff.

It seems like a normal flight with the normal air to ground chatter about altitudes and headings.  The buildings and ground glide underneath.

Then as you gently start to turn there is something off in the distance.  You guessed it – a flock of birds.  Well, in this case it is a picture of birds but there they are waiting to attack.  They get closer and closer as the plane ascends.  And soon they disappear, sucked into your plane’s engines.

Soon after you hear Captain Sully tell the controller what has happened and the rest plays out in real time as you can see everything that the pilots and passengers saw in real time with a cacophony of radio chatter erupting that grows and grows as the plane descends.

It is a brilliant piece of work.  Brilliant because it does something that reading about it in the newspaper, or watching the pictures on television, can never do: fulfill the immediacy of the moment not by telling you what happened (past tense), but placing you in the moment as it happens.

I highly recommend checking it out.

After downloading and installing Google Earth 5, download the tour from here.