The other day, Windows Live Local added high-resolution aerials of Edinburgh, and Alex and I promptly wasted hours and hours finding everything there was to see in our home city and arguing about the exact date the photos were taken.

I know we’re called Google Sightseeing, but I can’t resist posting Edinburgh Live Local sites, such as the Museum of Scotland, the flumes at the Commonwealth Swimming Pool, where I was married last year, where I studied at University and the Scott Monument. I could fill a whole website with these!

Anyway, one of the coolest things I found was this helicopter parked in the Meadows (a large park just beside Edinburgh University) and it reminded me of a Google Earth story which I’d meant to run a few weeks ago…

On December 1st, 2005 the Spanish opposition leader Mariano Rajoy hopped on a Police Helicopter which departed from a bullring in Mostoles, Spain and later crashed just outside the stadium, luckily no-one was badly injured.

Google Earth users spotted this picture of a helicopter in the bullring, and following some investigation, deduced that this satellite photo is in fact a picture of the helicopter that crashed on that very day, presumably only a few hours before departure.

Thanks: Simone & Amio Cajander

It looks like the pilot of a small aircraft has crashed into Juhu garden in Mumbai!

Actually, it turns out that this plane has never flown: it has no engine and is made of concrete, which I hear is not the most aerodynamic of materials. Submitter Rushikesh tells us that it is part of a kid’s playpark, and that you can get inside the cockpit and pretend like your flying it!

Thanks: Rushikesh Jukar

Rio de Janeiro’s location within steep mountains makes it perfect for the sports of hang and paragliders. Here on Pedra Bonita (”Beautiful Rock”) is one of over 50 launch ramps in Rio where those who are brave enough leap off and glide allllllllll the way down to the beach below.

Thanks: Wagner Fajardo

Parked at Gostomel Airport we find the only completed Antonov An-225 Mriya, which is the world’s biggest aircraft! (the American “Spruce Goose” has a larger wingspan, but it only ever flew once, and the Mriya is larger in terms of overall size). Compare its size to those ‘normal’ planes over to the East.

Originally designed to carry space shuttle as part of the Soviet Space Program the An-225 is now available commercially if you happen to need 250 metric tonnes of stuff carried about the world (5 tanks? 8 buses? 1,500 people?). Alternatively, it can carry up to 200 metric tonnes externally on the specially designed “roof-rack”.

There’s loads of ground-level pictures showing the six engines and 32 wheels on air and space.com.

Thanks: Al Cohole, Scott Richardson, Eddie & Paul

Buckley Air Force Base is home to the 460th Space Wing Staff and features loads of these giant radar golf balls, which I guess are used for communicating with their “Defense Support Program” satellites.

The base also hosts the Colorado Air National Guard, who we can see here performing a rescue training exercise. It would appear that a rescueman is being lowered from a Blackhawk helicopter to the lake below, where the helicopter’s downwinds are creating circular waves.

Thanks: Mark Eaker