Nirvana for aviation fanatics – live flight tracking in Google Earth!

Look, you don’t need to be a total aviation nut to enjoy the thrill of live flight tracking. But a new mashup of Google Earth and Flightwise data may be the ultimate in aviation geekery.

The combination results in a live map overlay of every single tracked flight in the country – and the best part is that you can zoom in on any flight, and pull up its information, flight path, delay information and more.

Using the tool is simple – head on over to the Google Earth Gallery, and open the Flightwise KML overlay file. You’ll need to have Google Earth installed, which is free, as is the flight track overlay. You can also play with it online using the Google Earth map on that page.

Admit it – if you are reading Gadling, you are bound to have a little aviation geek inside you, so don’t feel too bad that you are about to waste an hour of your day playing with this new toy, I won’t tell anyone!