Flying Archives

June 19, 2007

Pict'Earth - UAV Aerial Photography Solutions

Back at the beginning of the year, I wrote about a video someone posted showing a guy flying a remote controlled plane (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or UAV) and used a digital camera to take aerial photos and show them in Google Earth. The guy who created it is David Riallant, and his company Pict'Earth is located in France. He has now expanded his operation and has a new office in the USA, which is being run by Jeffery Johnson and Stewart Long. They have a new web site called PictEarthUSA.com. The new company has a system available which uses a basic remote controlled plane, Pict'Earth software, and a Nokia N95 as both the camera system and wireless broadband communicator. They offer both live and professional aerial image processing services. Not ony that, but they have recruited the efforts of the well-known Google Earth innovator Valery Hrosunov in Perm, Russia to develop the software for the image processing and display in GE. Check out their gallery of example photos.

Related:

• Remote controlled plane video
• High resolution photos from a UAV in Google Earth
• Driving a Car with a SpaceNavigator

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 28, 2007

ChartGeek - Sectional Maps for Pilots in Google Earth

Got an E-mail from a Richard Neal, who has recently released some products for pilots involving Google Earth. He has scanned current pilot Sectional and TAC charts and created visualizations for Google Earth. His web site is called ChartGeek.com, and he is selling a single sectional at 99 cents a chart, or you can buy a DVD with all the sectionals for about $90. You can download a free demo file which includes a section for San Francisco - the file is 64 Mbytes. The charts are scanned at high resolution and he has used KML 2.1 regioning features so you can see the full resolution as you zoom in for a closer look. The idea is that you can get better situational awareness by viewing standard charts which have been overlayed into Google Earth. You can adjust the transparency (or turn off the layer) to compare the satellite / aerial photos of Google Earth to the charts to help better familiarize yourself with the terrain and landmarks.

You can also use Google Earth to bring in other tools like NOAA weather data (radar, clouds, etc.) to enhance your weather familiarity. And, of course, GE is great for looking for things like hotels, dining, etc. to help plan your visit. Richard has some tips on GE's other planning possibilities on his site.

Over a year ago, there were scanned sectionals available (just not current ones) for Google Earth. But, that link no longer works. If you're willing to spend 99 cents a chart, this is a handy way to do some planning before you go on a VFR flight - at least in the US. I suspect the charts have not been perfectly orthorectified, but sectionals are not very high resolution. I would still recommend you have the paper chart with you on any flight. I haven't seen the TAC charts he's described yet, but he's sending me a demo DVD which I'll check out soon.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 01:40 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 28, 2007

Plane-shaped Pools in Google Earth

A popular web site for showing off unique things you can find in Google Earth and Maps is GoogleSightseeing.com. Developed by brothers Alex and James Turbull, GoogleSightseeing is a blog which highlights and describes the unique things they find or things suggested by their readers. In the past, they have found pools people have built in interesting shapes like guitars and hearts. A couple of days ago they did one showing pools in the shape of planes. Being an aviator myself, I couldn't resist sharing this one. You can see the four locations they found in this Google Earth file . Open the "plane-shaped-pools" folder and double click on each placemark to be flown to each location. Click on the story for more details.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:02 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

April 27, 2007

Stephen Hawking Flies in Zero G

The eminent and world-renowned astrophysicist Dr. Stephen Hawking wants to fly in space. Yesterday he got closer than many of us by experiencing zero gravity for several minutes. Dr. Hawking, almost completely paralyzed by Lou Gehrig's disease and communicating largely through eye movements, took a flight on a specially modified aircraft with a padded interior designed to give people who want to experience the zero gravity of space. The company, Zero G, has been offering these commercial flights for a couple of years, and recently received FAA approval to fly disabled people on the flights. Dr. Hawking was accompanied by an entourage of caretakers and medical equipment (for safety purposes). Money was raised for his flight and over $100,000 will go toward a charity he has chosen. You can see a portion of his flight which flew over NASA Kennedy Space Center and landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility, in Google Earth here (courtesy of FBOweb.com which showed his flight in Google Earth in real-time yesterday).

You can read more about Dr. Hawking's flight at the Washington Post or Reuters. The founder and CEO of Zero G, Peter H. Diamandis, has been a friend of mine for many years. He also founded the X Prize which was designed to help encourage private space travel and achieved world-wide recognition when Burt Rutan's Space Ship One won the $10 Million dollar prize in 2004. Larry Page, co-founder of Google, is on the Board of Trustees of the X Prize Foundation.

[Update: Oops, I mis-spelled Dr. Hawking's name accidentally earlier - fixed now - my apologies!]

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 19, 2007

News Roundup - Fixes for Windows Vista, Airshows, FBOWeb update, Photos with Search

• Fixes for Windows Vista - A new version of Google Earth is available for Windows - V4.0.2742. This release is primarily to address some issues with Windows Vista. No new version for the Mac. And, no new features.
• Airshows - I missed this post at the Google Earth Community by Google and Big Moving Pictures (which makes the big jumbotron TV screens seen at sporting events and airshows). They announced the availability of a Google Earth calendar of placemarks showing the locations of North American Military Airshows for 2007 . There are two versions of the placemarks available in the file, one which lets you use the time slider to show the movement of the shows over the course of the year.
• FBOWeb update - FBOWeb has updated their very cool Google Earth 3D flight tracking utilities. See the demo page here. In addition to being able to track all inbound flights to 8 major airports in the US, track a specific flight, and you can also see special 3D tracks and other information for recent aircraft incidents (crashes, near crashes, etc.). For more information on the flight tracking, read this previous blog post. This is cool stuff, if you haven't seen it, check it out.
• Photos with Search - Google released a new feature for searches with Google Maps about two weeks ago. When you search for businesses, you can now get related photos. For example, if you search for "Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA" you not only get the address, phone number, and web site, but also a photo. Click on "More Info" and you get tabs of information including 16 photos, 2 reviews and hundreds of web pages. My hope is that Google will implement the same capabilities in a future update to Google Earth so the information is consistent on both platforms. via Blogoscoped.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 11:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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More entries for this category:

6. Meigs Field - Preserved in Google Earth - March 15, 2007
7. Nine Planes in Formation - Faked in the Google Earth Database! - March 13, 2007
8. NOT a Cruise Missile in Flight Over Utah - March 04, 2007
9. Swiss Alps "Fighter" Tour in Google Earth - March 01, 2007
10. SpaceNavigator News: Fly Inside Demo, Security Checkpoints - February 22, 2007
11. Planes in Flight Hobby - February 13, 2007
12. Sydney Aerial Photo Shoot - January 26, 2007
13. Play Tour Mode in Google Earth - January 10, 2007
14. New Imagery Update for the Holidays - Awesome! - December 17, 2006
15. Santa's Toy Hunt and Santa Tracker in Google Earth - December 13, 2006
16. News Roundup - Animated 3D, EmerGeo, Altered Oceans, Virtual Airlines - October 29, 2006
17. Geotagged Photos from X PRIZE Cup, GPS Track too - October 25, 2006
18. Flight Back from Las Cruces in Google Earth - October 23, 2006
19. Same Day Aerial Photo in Google Earth - October 21, 2006
20. Trip Report and News Roundup: Flight to Las Cruces, Sensors, BBC on Maps, New blog - October 18, 2006
21. Flight of Space Ship One Depicted in Google Earth - October 12, 2006
22. Plane Crashed into Building in New York - See Location in Google Earth - October 11, 2006
23. Burning Man 2006 in Google Earth - October 03, 2006
24. Take Flight Sim Scenery and Port it to Google Earth - September 28, 2006
25. Google Earth as a "Flight Simulator" - September 15, 2006
26. 3D 747 Airliner on Approach at Maho Beach in Google Earth - August 25, 2006
27. Salute to the An-2 in Google Earth - August 10, 2006
28. Goggles - Google Maps Flight Simulator, Also: Google Earth Flying - August 08, 2006
29. FSEarth 3.0 - MS Flight Simulator and Google Earth - July 08, 2006
30. Aeronautical Information System - June 26, 2006
31. KC-135 Caught Refueling C-5 Galaxy in Mid-Air in Google Earth! - June 25, 2006
32. Sightseeing Roundup for Google Earth - May 02, 2006
33. Go Flying - Flight Tracklogs for Google Earth - April 30, 2006
34. Tribute to 'Connie' in Google Earth - April 09, 2006
35. FSEarth - MS Flight Simulator 2004 and Google Earth - April 06, 2006
36. Maldives Island Group in High Res - March 24, 2006
37. Flyagogo - A Pilot Google Maps Mashup (with GE tie-in) - March 23, 2006
38. GlobalFlyer Attempting Third World Record - March 15, 2006
39. Identifying Planes in Google Earth - March 01, 2006
40. FSPilot Connects FS2004 to Google Earth - February 26, 2006
41. Touch and Gos - February 22, 2006
42. Follow Steve Fossett/Global Flyer in Google Earth - February 09, 2006
43. Pilot World-wide Weather in Google Earth - February 08, 2006
44. Gliders "Crashing" in Google Earth - February 03, 2006
45. Flying Car? Not Really - January 23, 2006
46. 3D Planes for Flight Tracking in Google Earth - January 19, 2006
47. FBOWeb Flight Tracking Revisited - January 11, 2006
48. Lancaster Bomber Caught Flying in Google Earth - January 10, 2006
49. Slick Airfare Tool for Google Earth - December 16, 2005
50. Planes in Flight in Google Earth (revisited) - December 06, 2005
51. Near Real-time Flight Tracking in Google Earth - December 02, 2005
52. The Ubiquitous DC-3 Found in Google Earth - November 23, 2005
53. UFO Sighting Locations in Google Earth - November 04, 2005
54. Magnalox - GPS Story Telling for Google Earth - October 19, 2005
55. Huge Resource of 3D Glider Tracks for Google Earth - October 12, 2005
56. Categorized African Animals in Google Earth - October 11, 2005
57. Documenting a Recent Flying Trip - October 09, 2005
58. Garmin Buys MotionBased - October 04, 2005
59. Update to Planes in Flight Story - September 23, 2005
60. Planes in Flight Captured in Google Earth - September 21, 2005
61. MS Flight Simulator Interface - September 01, 2005
62. Flying - Keeping a Flight Log - August 05, 2005

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