Classic Carnival Rides Are Flight Simulators in Disguise

(via Atlas Obscura) Lee Eyerly was trying to help people learn how to fly. The flight simulator he built at the beginning of the 1930s was a small plane that could loop, turn and roll while suspended in the prongs of a giant, Y-shaped fork.  Eyerly used it to train would-be pilots, until some clever person suggested a different use. Why not let anyone on, for a price?

And thus,  a carnival ride was born.  Atlas Obscura has much more on learning to fly at the carnival.