Planes In Flight Mega-Post
Please note that some or all of the objects mentioned in this post are no longer visible on Google Earth or Google Maps.
Well it’s my own fault really. Since I posted that I hadn’t seen any planes in flight, we have been absolutely inundated with submissions proving that I was completely wrong. Glad to hear it, ‘cos some of these are really cool.
- Ryan (Cool shadow – look about 4 plane widths west)
- nowak (Can you find the shadow? I think its all the way over here)
- Arvo Huru (Anyone know what kind of plane that is?)
- Eric Thelin
- Brian Lalor
- Miker
- Chris (Pink plane. You sure its not parked though? I can’t see a shadow anywhere!)
- Matt (From the comments – Three at once! Very cool but is it really three planes, or just one?)
- Geoff Sulcer (Tiny little one)
- Jason (This is the one in our first picture)
- Colin (This one is huge! Or perhaps just very high up…)
- Tobic (Another three planes?! One just off the top and another just off the bottom)
- Kent (Kent says this is a U2 spyplane!)
- josh k (Quite a few of the planes have this weird blue ‘ghost’ in addition to their shadows, perhaps its due to their speed…)
- caknuck (…or perhaps its a reflection?)
- Arvo Huru (Now that’s fast!)
- Stilt (Apparently this is over Graceland)
- Rod Levin (This is the one in our second picture)
- Tom (This is cool, its a razor sharp image. Can’t find the shadow though.)
- DDA (And finally… toy-town planes!)
Couple of extra plane related ones, first from punk floyd, who says that this is a SR-71 Blackbird Reconnaissance plane parked on Beale AFB, and also from Allen Ormond, who fittingly points us towards the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. This is where the Wright Brothers made the first powered airplane flight.
Many thanks to everyone who submitted links but didn’t get a mention, there were just far too many of you!
bio” 
“Bugger. Lake Grapevine shot.”
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
i noticed this too… 5 shadows, but only 3 planes to match them with. this is certainly a time-lapse, as these planes would only be seconds apart. i guess the plane was out of frame for the last two shots.
1. The presence of shadow/lack of aircraft…..presence of aircraft/lack of shadow is caused by stitching together the cloud-free portions of images from different dates. The stitching “slices away” the missing feature but appears seamless at low resolutions like what’s on Google.
2. This also accounts for most of the places where multiple aircraft are visible on approach/departure but are within a couple hundred meters of eachother. Nowhere outside of carrier battlegroups do aircraft cycle that close.
3. The “reflection” phenomenon is indeed ghosting within the image. This is caused because the s/c takes both Panchromatic (B&W) and Mutlispectral (color) bands at very slightly different times. The higher resolution Pan bands are captured first, and then a fraction of a second later the lower resolution MS bands are captured. During that fraction of a second, the aircraft has moved to a slightly different spot, resulting in the “ghost”.
Here’s a plane over the Mississippi River in New Orleans:
Airplane over the Mississippi.
Another nice one is Barksdale AFB in Shreveport, LA – B52s everywhere, plus some A-10s, and what looks like a group of US bombers of the past.
Barksdale AFB
Here is one overflying Denver International..
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
I found a map where the plane (in the air) is really hard to find. Check out this map of Raleigh-Durham Airport and see if you can find the plane without messing with the zoom scale. Just pull up a chair, lean in and see if you it. (I couldn’t get the direct link to Google to work correctly.)
http://www.prouddemocrat.us/google_maps.htm
sorry, that was just too predictable. action speaks louder than bracelets.
Yeah, it’s a little predictable, but it’s a good way to scare others.
As for “actions speaking louder”, I agree completely, but if wearing a wristband motivates a person to get off the couch to do something, that’s a good thing.
the boeing international airport in Seattle :
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
may be an aircraft museum ?
Placemark: Taking off from Dallas / Google Earth. It’s pretty cool because the shadow’s so sharp. Put the plane into the bottom right corner and you can see it.
this one seems to crash into the water (but not really) :
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Kent’s U2 probably is a U2. Check out the web site for Beale Air Force Base (which is where the map says that picture is): http://www.beale.af.mil/#
Just arriving in Bermuda…
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
A lot of you guys are saying that the satellites are moving really fast and that is due to the differences in placement of aircraft, but did you ever think that maybe the satellites are in a geosynchronous orbit?
correction: the drone carrying version of the sr-71 is the m-21 with the drone being the d-21. it is not from what i can find on the net a combined desigination. sr-71’s are being retired since satalite imagery cost.
heres a interesting page that covers the a-12/m-21. http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/d21~1.htm
and yes according to this page Seattle is the only place to find the pair.
Avro Haru – your plane is most likely one of the many md-80 aka super 80 aircraft flown for medium haul flights. they are a unique airplane with the 2 engines on the back and the long body forward. Boeing took this model over and renamed it the 717 and later retired it from production.
I found the pink planes shadow guys. Left of the plane, across the highway is a zig-zaggin’ building. on the right of the upper “zig” is a blurry shadow. I believe this is the one.
Vegas plane landing. shadow is visible.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Business jet over Carmel, Ca.
Here’s one that looks like it’s parked on one of the holes at Cypresswood Golf Course, north of George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
I’ve never found a shadow for that one, but I KNOW it ain’t parked. I’ve played that hole before and don’t remember a plane on the green!
What is wrong with my computer?! Please delete my earlier post.
One flying over the Mississippi near New Orleans, if no one has seen it before.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Here’s a theory from an optics-researcher friend, Andrew Metha:
“Its got to do with altitude and the reason the sky is blue… scattering. Small particle scattering (Rayleigh scattering) depends on wavelength… in fact scattering intensity depends on the reciprocal of the fourth power of wavelength, so short wavelength light [e.g. blue light] scatters far more than long wavelength light [e.g. red light]. This is why the sky is blue. Consider a ray of light from the sun just missing the edge of the plane wing – in the absence of diffraction this ray would form the light border of the shadow. En route from the plane, the short wavelengths from this ray will scatter into the area of shadow far more than the long wavelengths, and so the shadow is tinged blue. This effect can only happen if there is enough scattering media between the (fairly large) opaque object and the image screen (ground), and I suppose would only work with a light source or narrow angular size so that a penumbra doesn’t foul things up. Sound plausible?”
Another possibility is that the images are in general a little bluer than they should be — that sort of thing might happen if the earth was rich in yellows or browns, or at least richer than the image-developers assumed. My insticts tell me no on this one, but the scattering/blue-sky argument my friend gives sounds just right.
Check out this plane over the great salt lake. You can see the shadow up to the north west:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Here’s a small one in Boston, near Logan airport:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
I think I’ve found the biggest one ! In fact it’s a little one but very close… I’m still looking for the shadow. Probably very far on the North East.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
isnt the one over graceland actually the “lisa marie” ? elvises jet?
This one just took off from Columbus, OH
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
I saw an episode of Nova or something else on PBS, that when the U2s take off and land they are escorted by another pilot in a late model Chevy Camero. They help the U2’s pilot with alignment on the runway. I think this may be that Camero.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
hey, have you seen this “half-plane” over london?
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
another one(and a ‘deep blue something’
) over oberursel near frankfurt, germany
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Can any of you eagle-eyes find the image of the jet casting this shadow? Or is this the latest in “stealth” technology? Only joking…
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Hey folks,
In this picture Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
there is some strange. The plane on the picture seemed just airborned at Runway 7L of Phoenix’s Intl. Airport. But if you look at the end of RWY 25R (the opposite direction) you will see 2 aircrafts waiting for departure at RWY25R. So, why this plane started to east and with backwind?
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Helicopter in flight ove Pacific Ocean near Hawaii
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Aircraft on final into Tokyo
Arvo Huru, the plane in question for you ( Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth ) appears to be an American Airlines MD-80.
The bright relfection gives away that it’s the metal body that they don’t paint, AA is one of the predominant airlines flying the MD-80, the size and length is similar to the MD-80, also has the tail style engines.
Then again it’s flying towards Texas, ie DFW, an AA hub.
Miker and Chris, it’s a good possibility those are NWA aircraft. Their scheme used to have red on the crown of the body all the way from nose to tail.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
This cewl plane with a nice shadow is heading for Amsterdam airport: Schiphol.
Not sure if I saw this one.
Departing from San Francisco.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Also, the blue shadows will be the result of automatic color processing. They were black, so the system assumed they could be water (which is black from above) and hence color-enhanced them to blue.
Hong Kong – Chek Lap Kok International (HKG / VHHH)
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/820968/L/
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Plane alongside Hong Kong – Chek Lap Kok International
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
A plane about to land at Glasgow Airport in Scotland (GLA) – Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Follow the runway up, and you’ll see that only half of the airport is currently covered by hi-res images.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
There is an ATR 72 flying from Warsaw (Poland) Airport
Here’s one over South London. Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Marcus,
I bet those two planes are just taxiing to the most right embarking place. Maybe they landed on the south airstrip. On the other side of the landing strip, there’s probably a plane taxiing to the east side, and will probably take of as the plane you spotted earlier.
Here is one plane taking off at the airport of Lisbon, Portugal.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
A plan going to land in BIO – Bilbao Airport.
Follow the line of the plane, to the west. to see the airport.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Landing in Buenos Aires:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Plane on approach to Pearson Int’l in Toronto – about 5 miles out.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Interestingly, in this shot, not only does the plane have the mysterious blue ghost, but the plane’s shadow also has a ghost:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Two airplanes taking off from airport Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle (France)
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
This one has just taken off :
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
here’s another one :
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
this one is possibly landing ?
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
The Roissy airport is huge and located at the north west of paris :
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth