Excellent flight-tracking layer from FlightWise
by Google Earth Blog on Sep.17, 2010, under 3D Models, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, California, Denmark, England, Germany, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Google Sky, Google maps, Hawaii, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Natural Landmarks, Netherlands, Sightseeing, Street Views, USA
FlightWise.com, with some help from Google, has just released a very nice KML that shows thousands of near real-time flights over the United States.
The data is roughly 15 to 20 minutes behind the current time, due to FAA restrictions. However, this is an excellent tool to get a look at all of the current flights in the US.
By hovering on a plane, you can see the flight number and a path of their journey to that point. Clicking on a plane gives you more information about the flight, including an option to view the full path of the flight as a KML tour. Opening the tour will show your plane with a larger red icon, and it will fly the entire path of its journey to that point.
For more information or to try it for yourself, you can:
• Read about it on the Google Lat Long Blog
• Try it using the Google Earth Plug-in
• Download the KML file for use in Google Earth