The latest version of Google Earth 4.2 Beta has a cool way to fly around the world using the hidden inbuilt Flight Simulator game on Windows and Mac OSX, reports Marco’s Blog. Google Earth Flight Simulator allows you to fly two fighter jets- an F-16 Viper and a Cirrus SR22- using keyboard shortcuts or a joystick.

You can start the Flight Sim by pressing Ctrl+Alt+A on Windows or Command+Option+A on Mac OSX while you are focused on the Google Earth window. You will then see the following screen prompting you to select one of the two aircrafts, runway of an airport from where you want to take off, resume from previous position in game and joystick support (if detected).

Once you have entered flight simulator mode for the first time using the shortcut mentioned above, you can re-enter the mode by choosing Tools > Enter Flight Simulator thereafter.

Controls:

Increase the thrust by pressing Page Up. Once you’ve accelerated to a sufficient velocity, use the download arrow key to take off. Other keyboard shortcuts can be found here.

Download Google Earth 4.2 Beta for PC, Mac or Linux here

Related Google Earth service:

*A real-time, 3D view of all current inbound flights to seven airports- FBOWeb