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It would seem that the latest version of Google Earth, which, [as we mentioned][5], includes the new Google Sky features, also includes a huge [Easter Egg][4] -- a flight simulator.
To activate the simulator you'll need the latest version of Google Earth. Open the app (be sure to check out Google Sky if you haven't), click somewhere in the main map window and press Crtl+Alt+A (Mac users Apple+Option+A) and you should see the dialogue window pictured below.
To use the Flight simulator just choose an aircraft and select an airport from the drop down list. A new window will open and you'll have a cockpit view of your chosen aircraft.
To actually fly it would help to have a joystick, though you can control the aircraft with these [keyboard shortcuts][1]. That said, it's really hard to control the aircraft (unless you happen to adept at flight simulators).
Marco Gallotta, who discovered the Easter egg, has [some tricks in his post][3]:
>Moving on though, you can get a quick start by holding Page Up for a few seconds to increase to maximum thrust (thrust meter is the left bar of the lower-left meters). Once you've accelerated to a sufficient velocity use the arrow keys to take-off. The keys are in reverse as one would expect with any flight simulator, so use the down arrow to take-off. When you've gained enough altitude then stabalise the aircraft to a straight flight path. It can be rather tricky to get the hang of as the controls are quite sensitive."
Once you're activated flight simulator you can return to it at any time using a new "Enter Flight Simulator" item in the Tools menu.
[via [Digg][2]]
[1]: http://earth.google.com/intl/en/userguide/v4/flightsim/index.html
[2]: http://digg.com/software/Google_Earth_Flight_Simulator_2
[3]: http://marco-za.blogspot.com/2007/08/google-earth-flight-simulator.html
[4]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg_%28virtual%29
[5]: http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/08/space-the-final.html
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