Recently, a blogger named Marco discovered a hidden feature within Google Earth: A flight simulator. Mashables commented about it, talking about how it works:

You need the latest version of Google Earth, and I needed to be over the US to get the window to pop up. What you should see in that window is a choice of two planes - the F16 and the SR22. Once you’ve accessed it for the first time, you can return to the simulator by hitting Tools, then Enter Flight Simulator. The controls are keyboard and mouse, and while it’s limited in scope, it’s still a lot of fun.

All you need to do is go over the US, hit CTRL-Alt-A (replace ALT with Option for Macs) and you’re in! But this still smacks of something a bit more significant….I think that this is the sign of the next new thing to come out of the Google Laboratory of Amazing Design: A thing I assume will be known as Google Flight.

Google Flight?

Yes, Google Flight. What you will see with the flight sim is rather crude, but workable. I consider it a prototype for something a hell of a lot greater then just some stupid little Easter Egg. Right now, I can only thing of two major flight simulators: Microsoft Flight Simulator, and X-Flight. Both ain’t cheap. If Google creates a low-cost flight sim, imagine what it would do for all those armchair pilots, airplane enthusiasts (Such as myself) and anyone else wondering what it’s like to fly a plane.

The flight sim on Google Earth only has two planes available, but I figure a full-blown sim should have a complete repertoire of planes for you to play with. I’d love to see a Boeing 757, and would especially love to be able to skin it. (Fly Virgin America, anyone?)

So what do you think? Is a flight sim the next thing for Google?

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