A new app has been recently released called the Flyover Country application. This app enables people on an airplane to look out the window and know exactly what their current position is as well as what’s going on underneath them on the ground.
People usually can view many geological features and landscapes as they travel through air and sometimes have a general curiosity of what exactly the landscape is that they are flying over. This was the case for Shane Loeffler when the idea hit him to create the Flyover Country app.
How does the app work?
Flyover Country uses many geological and paleonto logical databases in order to use their maps and data to help provide the information that users will see when they see the landscape beneath them on a plane. The users can see features tagged on the map of what’s directly on the ground below and can read Wikipedia articles about all the glaciers and man-made features that are underneath them as they are on the plane. For example if a plane is flying over an area where dinosaur bones were discovered, than the passenger will be able to read up on this fact using the Flyover Country app.
The application only uses a phone’s GPS once the user enters their flight path which means that there is no need for the user to purchase in-flight Wi-Fi to use the app.
The creator describes the seat of an airplane as a ‘planetarium for the Earth’ and that their app can help encourage people to learn more about the sciences.
Co-developer Amy Myrbo says that they are developing more data sources such as chemistry of rocks, core samples from the oceans and data on earthquakes.
The team that created the app is looking forward to people hopefully one day using their app for road trips, tramps and bike rides to find information on all the features around them.
This fast changing tech-powered globe is making way into more portable and convenient solutions.
