A Disney patent application published Thursday describes a Soarin’-style ride that loads on a flat floor, then tips riders upright to face a giant screen. No park has been named.
Disney’s newest ride idea starts flat on the floor and ends up standing on its end.
A Disney patent application called “Flying Theater Ride” was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday, Oct. 29. It describes a ride where guests walk or roll onto a level platform, sit down, and then get tilted up to face a big screen for a flying-style show.
WDWMagic spotted it first. The big selling point in the paperwork is access: the flat floor is meant to let guests who use a wheelchair, a cane or crutches get on without the barriers some current rides have.
What does Disney’s flying theater patent describe?
Picture a movie theater floor that turns into a wall of seats. Riders board a “user cabin” while it’s flat and locked in place. Then a rotating hub swings it from horizontal to “substantially vertical,” so everyone ends up facing the screen, up in the air.
WDWMagic describes that as a turn of about 90 degrees. Seats pivot as the platform moves, so riders stay in a “comfortable, upright position,” the filing says.
Once the show starts, a set of linked arms and actuators can lift, drop and tilt the whole cabin, timed to what’s on the screen. The filing says riders may get a “sensation of flying.”
The screen could be a projection screen or a big LED, LCD or plasma display, according to the application.
How is this different from Soarin’ at EPCOT?
Soarin’, which opened at Disney California Adventure in 2001 and at EPCOT in 2005, uses a lift that raises rows of riders into a giant curved screen, with their feet dangling. It’s been a hit for 25 years.
The new filing argues that older flying rides can be slow to load and hard to evacuate in the middle of a show. A flat, level loading floor “can make loading and unloading faster than other systems,” it says.
And the accessibility pitch is right there in the text. The design “may enable users with disabilities (e.g., users 142 who use an assistive device such as a wheelchair, cane, crutch, etc.) to access the entertainment system 100, where other systems may present a physical barrier to such users,” the application says. (The numbers are the patent’s labels for the drawings.)
Is Disney building a new flying ride?
Nobody’s saying that. This is a published application, not a granted patent, and Disney hasn’t announced any ride tied to it.
The filing doesn’t name a park, an attraction or a movie. It mentions only something “such as a theme park attraction.” WDWMagic made the same point: an application doesn’t mean a ride is coming.
Disney Enterprises filed it April 25, 2025. The inventors listed are James Durand of Los Angeles and Stephen Brooks Rowe of Toluca Lake, California.
Companies file patents all the time to protect ideas that never get built. Still, Disney’s park patents are fun to read, because some of them do turn into real rides years later.
What happens if the flying ride loses power?
The filing has a plan for that, and it’s a nice detail. One claim covers a counterweight built to bring the cabin back down to its loading position “in an event of a malfunction.”
That matters for a ride that holds people up in the air facing a screen. Getting everyone down safely during a breakdown is one of the problems the application says it’s trying to solve.
WDWMagic also points out a fun example scene in the filing: a canoe going over a waterfall, with the cabin moving to match.
What other accessible ride patents has Disney filed?
This isn’t the first one lately. In September, WDWMagic reported a Disney application for a boat-ride platform that would let guests in wheelchairs and scooters board without transferring out of their chairs.
Put the two together, and there’s a pattern. Disney’s Imagineers seem to be working hard on ways to get more guests onto rides without leaving their wheelchairs behind.
When did Soarin’ Across America open?
The current Soarin’ film is a limited-time show for America’s 250th birthday. Soarin’ Across America opened at EPCOT on May 26, 2026, and at Disney California Adventure on July 2, 2026, according to the Disney Parks Blog.
It swapped out Soarin’ Around the World, which ran its last day at EPCOT on May 13. Disney hasn’t said when Across America will end.
Article compiled and written by Kambrea Pratt (editor-in-chief), Derek Gibbs (beat editor) and the Pirates & Princesses newsroom. Pirates & Princesses is part of WebReef Media.
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Hat Tips:
WDWMagic (Oct. 29, 2026), first report on the application
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (Oct. 29, 2026), application US 2026/0335777 A1, “Flying Theater Ride”
WDWMagic (Sept. 17, 2026), wheelchair boat-ride application
Disney Parks Blog (May 14, 2026), Soarin’ Across America dates
Attractions Plus on YouTube, Soarin’ Across America ride video
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