On 1 june 2023 Vietnamese theme park VinWonders Nha Trang opened their newest ride to the public. This new experience is a flying theatre, and not just any flying theatre: it marks the first installation of the Airific theatre, developed by German ride manufacturer Mack Rides. The ride, of which the name is suspected to be ‘Flying Theater’, takes riders on a flight above the most beautiful places of Vietnam and the rest of the world.
With Flying Theater, Mack Rides built the first installation of their Airific flying theatre, a ride design that was introduced in 2021. One of the ride’s key highlights is its back-to-back configuration, enabling a remarkable capacity utilization. This design ensures that while one side of the theater is transformed into a captivating cinema experience, the other side remains in the loading position. By utilizing this innovative setup, Airific optimizes both guest experience and operational efficiency on a small footprint. This efficient process allows for a smoother and more enjoyable experience for all guests, reducing wait times and ensuring a seamless flow throughout the attraction.
Last week, Mack Rides announced the opening of this new ride via a post on their socials. Apart from Mack Rides, who was invloved in the design and construction of the ride system, also their subsidiary Mack Animation took their share in the project. Mack Animation was responsible for creating the custom video of the new ride.
A first test example of the Airific seat was already presented by Mack Rides on Expos during 2022, such as the IAAPA Expo Europe (see our DRdb report). Expo visitors were able to test a four-person seat, which was equipped with the four degrees of freedom that are available on a full-scale airific theatre: heave, pitch, roll and yaw. In combination with VR-goggles, the test seat was already mentioned by riders to offer a remarkably smooth and solid flying theatre experience.
Flying Theater is not the first immersive experience in VinWonders Nha Trang. In December 2022, the park already opened Tata World River Adventure, a major dark boat ride developed by Jora Vision and Interlink. Team DRdb was able to visit the park last spring (check out our report here), and back then the construction of Flying Theater was already announced on large banners. Now that the ride is open, we can only guess what the next step will be for the park.
