11,000 Planes, 838 Satellites, Right in Your Browser

Numbers first: 11,000 live aircraft, global ships, 838 satellites (the entire Starlink shell), 3,400 public cameras — all live in a 3D Earth in your browser. Not a movie prop: it’s God’s Eye View, open-sourced by an ex-Google Maps product manager, +2,680 stars in a day.

Real Data in Spy-Movie Visuals

God’s Eye View is a 3D Earth showing all public aircraft, ships, satellites, earthquakes, wildfires in real time — from real public broadcast signals (ADS-B, AIS, NASA FIRMS). Spy-movie visuals, 100% real open data — and the project honestly labels what’s simulated vs estimated.

8 Features, 3 That Matter Most

Cockpit view + sensor styles are the stars — click a flight, ride along to landing, switch to night-vision. Like a movie, but the planes are real.

Why the Author Built It

Bilawal Sidhu, ex-Google Maps product manager — ‘mapped the world at Google.’ From his viral YouTube series (5M+ views), the community demanded open source — README opens with: ‘You asked, so it’s happening.’ His thesis: ‘The interface is the bottleneck, not the data.’ Boundaries included: no face search, no personal tracking — that PR never passes.

Google Earth or This?

Explore or query? Query a plane → FlightRadar24; view a map → Google Earth; explore the real world like a movie → God’s Eye View.

Trust Check

The resume speaks: ex-Google Maps PM, Substack writer, Brendan Eich retweeted it. MIT licensed, deliberately zero-framework (vanilla JS + CesiumJS) — ‘deliberately readable and modifiable’ is the developer’s honesty.

Where It’s Headed

Historical data replay (the author admits ‘the past’ is the expensive part), official hosted cloud version. Geography intel will become as easy as browsing a map.

Try It: Zero Install

Open the official demo link on the GitHub page — or run it yourself:

git clone https://github.com/bilawalsidhu/gods-eye-view.git
cd gods-eye-view && npm ci
npm run dev      # http://localhost:4173

First second: ‘wow.’ Earth turning, planes crossing, click one and ride along.

Installation: Follow Along

Tested on macOS 15 (16GB):

# Step 1: check Node 24.14+ / 26.x 【KEY】
node -v
# Step 2: install & run
git clone https://github.com/bilawalsidhu/gods-eye-view.git
cd gods-eye-view && npm ci && npm run dev

Smooth; the full Earth opens. Gotchas: ① not every layer is live (traffic is simulated, CCTV estimated); ② voice needs an OpenAI key with a $5 hard cap; ③ browser keys must be domain-restricted.

FAQ & Friendly Reminders

• Q: Is the data real? A: Aircraft/ships/satellites are real public signals; simulated parts are labeled.
• Q: Heavy? A: Runs in-browser; 16GB RAM is smooth.
• Q: Commercial? A: MIT — but not for flight/navigation, emergency, or medical use.

Back to that number — 11,000 planes are flying right now, in front of you. Want the Starlink or rocket-replay deep dive? Comment — that’s next.