Have you considered using of the many pre-written 3D engines that now exist for Flash AS3? Such as Papervision 2.0 or Away3D. You'll be able to do all the globe stuff with one of these, but you'll have to know a fair bit about developing in Flash in your gonna go down this route. I've just completed an fully interactive 3D route map for a client which I would love to show you but can't yet since it's not live.
wwwdotpapervision3ddotorg
wwwdotaway3ddotcom
Jimmy.