I believe the ‘Space Rides’ most resemble “Barnstorming”. We just need to come up with a really cool name like ‘Barnstorming’. Everybody in Aviation should learn our Barnstorming history. Flying stunts cut a lot of peoples lives’ short but, many of our greatest Aviation engineers and pilots were inspired by these same death defying thrill seeking stunts. Watch documentaries and movies if you don’t like reading. Quite a few of the advancements in Aviation came from the competitiveness of upping each other in the name of entertainment.
Just like today’s Aviation Vloggers, folks like the Flying Cowboys are giving Aviation the next level boost that it desperately needs. If you think all this high adventure and risk is over the top and unnecessary? DON’T WATCH, sorry, bad things sometimes happen.
Southeast Alaska was always a very risky place to travel before moving map GPS. Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) was way too common place. These pilots who experienced CFIT became the justification needed for funding of the Capstone Electric Flight Instrument (EFIS) project. The EFIS technology was coming to the cockpit sooner or later but, the multi-million dollar Capstone Project pushed that time line. That was only 18 years ago.