Flyover is a

flying theater A flying theater is a Theme park, themed entertainment technology and adjacent show style. It is a type of simulator ride which consists of one or several motion systems and a large screen. This type of attraction is also known as a panoramic flyin ...

attraction. The first Flyover attraction opened in 2013 at

Canada Place Canada Place, co-named Komagata Maru incident, Komagata Maru Place, is a building situated on the Burrard Inlet in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is home to the Vancouver Convention Centre East Building, the Pan Pacific Hotels and Resor ...

in downtown

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

. The ride takes guests on a virtual flight across Canada, utilizing ride equipment for up to 61 people at a time into a 19m (62 foot) diameter spherical screen and employs wind, mist, and scents to enhance the experience. It has since opened at the

Mall of America Mall of America (MoA) is a large shopping mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota. Located within the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, the mall lies southeast of the junction of Interstate 494 and Minnesota State Highway 77, north ...

in the US, Chicago's Navy Pier, downtown

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

, Iceland, and in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

with plans to open a ride in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

History

Flyover in Vancouver

Flyover was created by entrepreneurs Stephen Geddes and Andrew Strang, who wanted to bring a new tourist attraction to downtown Vancouver. They were inspired by the

Soarin' Over California ''Soarin, also known as ''Soarin' Over California'', ''Soarin' Around the World'', ''Soaring Over the Horizon'' and ''Soaring: Fantastic Flight'', is a flight motion simulator attraction at Disney California Adventure, Epcot, Shanghai Disneyla ...

ride located at Disneyland and Epcot. They wanted to create a ride that would attract a wide demographic and showcase the diversity of Canada. In 2013, they, along with financier Aquilini Developments, formed a partnership called Soaring Attractions. The ride is located in a former

Imax IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...

theatre at

. Soaring Attractions invested $16 million to develop the ride On June 29, 2013, the ride opened as FlyOver Canada. The ride takes guests on a virtual flight across Canada, utilizing ride equipment that launches up to 61 people at a time into a 19m (62 foot) diameter spherical screen and employs wind, mist, and scents to enhance the experience. It became the largest new tourist attraction to open in the region at the time.

FlyOver America

Soaring Attractions then went on to open a similar ride in

Bloomington, Minnesota Bloomington is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. It is located on the north bank of the Minnesota River above its confluence with the Mississippi River, south of downtown Minneapolis and just south of the Interstate 494/Inter ...

with the title FlyOver America in 2016. The estimated cost for the second ride was $20 million US. The ride opened on April 19, and includes footage of Minneapolis, Lake Calhoun, Red Wing, Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine. Beginning in June 8, 2017, the FlyOver Canada film was featured as an alternating attraction at FlyOver America. Currently, as of February 10, 2020, a FlyOver Hawaii film has occupied the alternating attraction slot.

FlyOver Iceland

FlyOver Iceland was opened on September 1, 2019 in Reykjavík's Grandi Harbour District. FlyOver Iceland was Pursuit's first FlyOver attraction located outside of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. FlyOver Iceland provides a similar experience to Flyover in Vancouver and Las Vegas with multi-sensory

special effect Special effects (often abbreviated as F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the fictional events in a story or virtual world. ...

s and a 20-metre spherical screen. FlyOver Iceland showcases the film Legends of Iceland, along with a series of films available at the other locations.

Flyover in Las Vegas

On September 1, 2021, Flyover in Las Vegas opened. The ride's film, ''The Real Wild West'', uses a moving platform with six degrees of motion as well as wind, mist, and location-specific scents to enhance the experience as the seats are suspended above landmarks across the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Acquisition by Pursuit and Expansion

In December 2016, Soaring Attractions sold Flyover to the Phoenix based travel and events company, Pursuit, a subsidiary of Viad Corp. In 2017, Pursuit announced it would be developing a Flyover ride in downtown

, Iceland in cooperation with Esja Attractions. FlyOver Iceland opened in September 2019. In February 2019, Viad announced plans to develop a Flyover ride in Las Vegas, which opened on September 1, 2021 with a Flyover The Real Wild West ride film with the Iceland film being an alternating attraction. In July 2019, Viad announced plans to develop a FlyOver ride in Toronto.

Awards

Strang and Geddes were previous winners of the Business in Vancouver Forty under 40 award.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.flyovercanada.com, Flyover in Vancouver official website
''In Park Magazine''
Tourist attractions in Vancouver Amusement rides introduced in 2022