Taking Flight with Google Maps

General Electric's Points of Departure is a nicely designed Google Map showcasing the 6,000 most popular airports in the world. You can browse the airports by name, by the busiest airports, the most scenic or even view those situated on small islands.

Each airport is shown with Google Maps satellite view. Pictures from Flickr are also displayed beneath the map and their location shown on the map with map markers. The map also includes a permalink buttom that allows you to share your favourite map view.

The GE Show: Future Flight: Points of Departure

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How Far Can You Fly with Google Maps?

Hungarian Airline Malev has a nice flight finder tool that allows you to select an airport, the amount of money that you are willing to pay and then view on Google Maps destinations that you can afford on your budget.

The travel finder is very easy to use. You can just click on any of the mapped airports to set them as the airport that you wish to fly from. You can set the amount of money you are prepared to pay using the slide control. When you press enter all the destinations that you can afford with Malev Hungarian Airlines are shown on the map (with the cost of flight).

You can even book your flight directly from the map.

Malev Travel Planner

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Australian Ash Cloud on Google Maps

Planefinder.net

The ash cloud created by the eruption of the Puyehue volcano in Chile continues to cause huge disruption to plane flights in Australia. Real-time flight tracking website planefinder.net is using Google Maps to show the location of the ash cloud as it drifts around the southern hemisphere.

The ash cloud is predicted to linger over south-east Australia for some time, causing widespread disruption to flights in and out of Sydney and Melbourne. At the time of writing the planefinder.net map shows a few flights in and out of south-east Australian airports but nowhere near the flight activity that can be seen in and around Perth.

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The Best Australian Flights on Google Maps

GetFlight

GetFlight is a Google Maps based application that displays the cheapest flights in and out of Australia. The application tracks sale fares for the four major domestic carriers and some of the largest international airlines that operate in and out of the country and displays them on a map.

To start you can just click on one of the major cities and the cheapest domestic and international flights are immediately shown on the map. It is also possible to type in your starting point and your destination of choice to see the best deals for that journey.

If you select the 'search direct' button you can also define the dates you wish to travel and select which airlines you wish to fly with.

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A Google Map for Pilots

Skychatter

Skychatter is a Google Maps mashup for pilots and the aviation community. It shows a map of all FAA-registered US airports and includes reviews, technical data and weather information for each airport.

On Skychatter, pilots can easily surf the map for airports. All airports large, small, grass strips, sea-plane ports etc are listed. While scanning the map you can select an individual airport and quickly see its actual airport runway layout with a pop-up satellite view. You can also check the current weather there and you can read reviews of the airport written by other pilots.

If you are a pilot wanting to explore and fly to new airports, anecdotal information is very valuable and is often hard to find. Skychatter makes it easy to find and share such anecdotes via airport reviews.

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Find a Cheap Flight with Google Maps

Trabber

Trabber is web service that searches online travel agencies, lowcost carriers, traditional airlines and hotel booking websites to find you the best priced flights and hotels.

Trabber has just added a new feature that uses Google Maps to display airfares. When you search Trabber without specifying a destination you can now view the offers on Google Maps. For example, you can search Trabber for all fares under $100 from New York and view all the possible destinations on a map.

The map markers on the map display the price of the flight. The markers are also color coded to indicate the quality of the offer. The darker the color the higher the discount compared with the mean value.

The map automatically updates the results shown so that when you scroll or zoom to different locations, new offers will appear dynamically around the selected destination.

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How Far Can You Afford to Fly?

Destmapper

Destmapper uses Google Maps to show you how far you can fly on a specific budget. The map uses flight cost data from adioso.com.

On first loading the map determines your location and begins to load the destinations you can fly to from that location for under $189 (prices are displayed in New Zealand dollars). Users can then increase the cost of flights that they are prepared to pay for by using a slider control.

As you increase the cost of flights more locations will be marked on the map. You can also load different price-range locations on the map via a number of quick links. The markers displayed on the map are even colour-coded by the price range of flights.

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Visualise Airport Delays with Google Maps

Flightstats - Airport Delays Map

Flightstats has featured a real time Flight Tracker Google Map on its website for a number years. It now also has a Google Maps based Airport Delays map.

The flight tracker works much the same as an in-flight tracker you'd see on-board an aircraft. To use the map you just need to enter a carrier flight number and departure date. The map will then display the flight's track on a Google Map with essential real-time information such as the flight status and scheduled arrival time.

Flightstats Airport Delays map gives you a quick overview of likely delays at major airports around the world. The airport markers on the map are colour-coded to indicate the severity of current delays. A green marker shows that the airport is running without major delays and a red marker with a black dot signals that the airport is experiencing excessive delays.

It is possible to click on any airport to get a more detailed view of current delays. It is also possible to view a weather radar overlay on the map (which I guess just might give you a clue as to why a particular airport is experiencing delays).

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Learn About Your Flight with Google Maps

Hidden Journeys

Wouldn't it be great if, before taking a plane flight, you could look up the flight path and learn about all the places you will fly over on your journey? Well if you are travelling from London to Johannesburg, London to Delhi or London to Vancouver you now can.

Hidden Journeys, a project of the Royal Geographical Society, aims to enable air travellers to interact and engage with the parts of the world that can be seen from the air whilst on a plane journey. So far only three plane journeys have been mapped but more are on the way.

The website's aim is "to create a knowledgeable travelling population who can make the most of the aerial perspective whilst flying to better understand the world; to understand the depth and richness of the changing relationship between humans and their natural and built environment; and how the physical environment they can see from the air has changed, and continues to change over time."

Hidden Journeys uses Google Maps to show the flight path of the journey and to show the interesting things that can be seen from the plane on your journey. If you click on any of the map markers you will be shown detailed information and photographs of the selected location.

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Finding Planes with Google Maps

Plane Finder

Plane Finder is another live real-time flight tracker.

The site uses Google Maps to show the position of planes in flight over Europe, some areas of the USA, Turkey and sporadic coverage elsewhere. If you want to find out exactly where Plane Finder has flight coverage you can check out their Plane Coverage Map, which shows where the map is active.

Like other flight trackers Plane Finder users plane shaped map markers to show the current position of planes. If you click on a marker you can view the plane's flight track and also information about the flight, destination and speed.

Other Flight Tracking Maps

• FlightRadar24.com
• RadarVirtual - worldwide real-time flight tracker
• Casper - live real-time tracks of planes in and out of Schipol Airport
• GMaps Flight Tracker - inbound flight maps to some busy U.S. airports: Atlanta, Boston, JFK New York, Los Angeles and Chicago
• North American flight tracker! - works for most commercial flights originating and arriving in the United States and/or Canada
• Radar - tracking flights over Sweden
• HelloFlight.com - Flight tracker for the USA & Canada

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Another Google Maps Flight Planning Tool

UAVSAR: Interactive Flight Planning

The UAVSAR Flight Planning map is a flight planning tool developed specifically for NASA’s airborne radar called Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR), but in the future there are plans to make this a general flight planning tool that can be used by anyone.

If you log into the site as a guest however you can already play with the tool and experiment with the interface.

Some of the main features of the interface include drawing flight lines on the map, nudging them, adding them to the current flight plan, and reordering them. You can also add ground control points and search and select takeoff, landing, and intermediate airports.

As the flight plan is constructed, all of its components are constantly being saved and the estimated flight times are updated on the fly.

Also See

goVFR - a Google Maps flight planning solution

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The Empty Airspace Over the UK - Updated

Casper - Live Aircraft Tracking

Casper the live tracking website has expanded its coverage. Previously Casper only showed real-time tracking of flights on Google Maps in and out of Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands. The site now also shows flights in and out of Manchester and Dublin Airports.

It is an interesting time to check out Casper. Because of an ash cloud from a volcanic eruption in Iceland all flights in and out of the UK and several other European countries have been suspended. Casper does show a handful of planes are flying in and out of Amsterdam but the UK is one big empty airspace.

Flightradar24.com

If you want to check out the empty skies over Europe then have a look at Flightradar24.com. Airspace is apparently also closed in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. However Flightradar24.com does seem to show some flights venturing into the south of Sweden and Denmark.

Radar Virtuel

Radar Virtuel also provide a Google Map that shows real-time aircraft traffic coverage over Europe. The Radar Virtuel site now shows less traffic over Europe as even more countries have closed down their airspace.

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Creating Flight Plans with Google Maps

goVFR

goVFR is an online flight planning solution which uses Google Maps. The application provides worldwide navigation aids and airport data, worldwide weather forecasts and charts and many more functions relevant to help aviators.

goVFR is free to register and registered users can create and browse flight plans created with Google Maps. The flight plans include many options, such as adding waypoints, calculating a classic flight plan, real time fuel calculation and the ability to transfer flight plans to a GPS device.

If you need any help creating your flight plan or if you just want to chat and get advice from other pilots goVFR even has a forum.

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Google Maps Runway Finder

RunwayFinder

Since RunwayFinder was first featured on Google Maps Mania way back in 2007 a number of really cool features have been added to the map.

RunwayFinder is a flight planning tool for U.S. pilots that allows them to check out current weather conditions for airports, terminal charts, routes, range circles, and temporary flight restrictions.

Using Google Map's satellite view pilots can see the layout of runways, taxiways, and buildings (depending on the quality of the satellite images) before arriving at an airport. A chart data view has also been added to Google Map's default views to show aeronautical chart information such as obstructions and special use airspace.

RunwayFinder even has its own API that allows developers to embed RunwayFinder charts on their own websites.

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Google Map of Boeing 787's First Flight

The Dreamliner Flight Track

Boeing's new aircraft, the 787 Dreamliner, will today take its very first flight. Boeing's website Boeing's New Airplane is hosting a live webcast of the event and have produced a Google Map that will track the plane's flight in real-time. The Dreamliner is due to take off at 10 am (PST) (18:00 GMT).

At the time of writing the map shows the Dreamliner parked directly on the runway at Paine Field, Seattle. The map includes indicators that will show the plane's speed and altitude whilst in flight. Flight data for the map is provided by FlyteComm,Inc. The Dreamliner's location will be updated on the map once a minute.

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Simulated Chinese Flight Tracking Map

AirCN Map

This Chinese Google Maps mashup is a simulated map of flights in and out of Chinese airports.

Planes are shown on the map with small red aeroplane map markers. Clicking on any of the plane markers opens an information window with details about the flight. The planes shown on the map are also displayed in a map sidebar. Clicking on any of the planes in the sidebar will centre the map on the selected plane.

The site is only in Chinese.

Hat-tip to Ren for pointing out that this is a simulated map and not a real-time tracking map.

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Find Cheap Fares on Google Maps

Kayak Insight

Kayak.com have created a Google Map mashup that will do a live search for cheap flights from any airport in the world.

To initiate the map the user just has to type the name of an airport in the search box and press 'change home airport'. The map then shows live searches for cheap fares to other airports around the world. Each flight path and airport is then added individually to the map.

Clicking on any of the map markers will open an information window with details of the fares and a link to the relevant page on Kayak.com. The fares are also displayed underneath the map.

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Real-Time Twitter Map of Plane Journeys

Flight Tweets

Mibazzar's Flight Tweet map shows the latest Tweets and Facebook messages from people currently on plane flights. The messages have been sent using Lufthansa's MySkyStatus service, which can send altitude, location, departure and arrival updates automatically to your Facebook and Twitter pages. The service is not limited to Lufthansa flights and senders can send messages from any flight.

The Flight Tweet map animates through the latest messages sent via the service, plotting the messages on a Google Map. All you have to do is sit back and watch.

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Flight Finder on Google Maps

Flightm8

Have you ever had the problem of not knowing which airlines fly to your chosen destination? Flightm8 can tell you which airlines fly where.

To use Flightm8 you select the city from which you wish to fly. Once you have selected a city the nearest airports are shown on a Google Map. You then select the airport(s) you wish to fly from. Once you have repeated the process for your destination city Flightm8 will show you all the airlines that fly between your chosen cities.

Flightm8 even provides links to the airline so that you can book your flight.

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Live Plane Tracking in the Netherlands

Casper
This Google Maps mashup shows live real-time tracks of planes coming in and out of Schipol Airport in the Netherlands.

As well as watching real-time flights it is possible to show flights for any day on the map by selecting a date from the calendar. A really nice feature of the map is that you can control the speed of playback.

The screencast below shows traffic yesterday at 25x normal speed:



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