Disney files patent application

[larrygator]

Check out this link that ended up in my inbox today. I know patents are filed all the time that never get used but thought you might find this interesting.

 

http://www.stitchkingdom.com/disney-patent-application-flight-motion-simulator-vehicle-18796/

 

Disney Files Patent Application for True ‘Flight Simulator’ Vehicle

 

Arguably a theme park will need a lot of available land, or an expansion of sorts, to implement the type of attraction demonstrated in the recently published patent application titled ‘Amusement Park Ride with Cable-Suspended Vehicles’ (patent application US 20110300957).

 

As demonstrated in the sketch below what appears to be some sort of cable-car themed vehicle cruising through the streets of a metropolis, the vehicle, as invented by David W. Crawford and Edward A. Nemeth, uses multiple cables to control various aspects and positions of the vehicle itself.

 

Specifically, the vehicle is intended to fully simulate flight while moving in a physical space. In addition to the ability of the attraction being able to physically control the pitch, roll and yaw of the vehicle, it also allows for the guest to control certain elements such as altitude.

 

The patent application even goes further in its exploration of what it considers the next generation of motion simulators. For example, multiple physical flightpaths could be possible while guests aboard the vehicle may have such control that they could alter the path/storyline and ‘thrill level.’

 

With the Avatar area slated to open at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World, it’s quite possible that this type of vehicle could be used in an attraction featuring mountain banshees. An excellent implementation of this may be a very plussed version of ‘Pteranodon Flyer’ found in the Jurassic Park section of Universal Studio Orlando’s Islands of Adventure where guests could tour the Avatar landscape above it all. Camouflaging the cables may require another patent altogether however.

Edited December 9, 2011 by larrygator

[gisco]

Looks like a capacity nightmare!

[RoCo]

Capacity issues aside, WOW. Yeah, the potential applications for an Avatar attraction are incredible. Or a rebirth of Kong at Universal.

[Nrthwnd]

So then,

 

if one cable ZIGS and the other one ZAGS...

 

boom?

 

 

These things better move darn slow, lol.

[Chroniq]

One of the reasons that this is very possibly tied to Avatar is the fact that the patent application was filed so recently (December 8th 2011). There are many companies that speculatively file for patents for stuff that is just bluesky and probably will never be created (Apple is a company that is widely known to do this). Disney on the other hand usually only files for a patent for a tangible product they are going to create or have already created.

 

 

The only thing that concerns me about this patent application is that I'm not aware of Disney filings they have masked the true implementation of the project like they have in the drawings here (drawing of flying around a building versus drawing of flying around a forest). Although that is common practice for a company like Apple, I've never seen Disney do it before. Either way, I'd expect this to be built somewhere for some project.

 

Props to the op.

[CoasterKid]

I believe this is similar to the kind of system Intamin proposed for Kongfrontation.