VR Flying Experience Contributing to Museums’ Recovery
As the challenges brought on by the pandemic begin to ease, Birdly has taken flight again! Returning visitors to science centers and museums flock to this safe, exhilarating, and unique experience – and generate much-needed revenue for institutions in recovery. The Field Museum in Chicago and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science serve as two case studies that illustrate the potential of this buzzworthy, interactive VR simulator.
“Birdly has been great for the Field Museum as we reopened in 2021. We decided to highlight Birdly as a featured attraction, moving one of our two units into Stanley Field Hall, our main entrance. Visitors are really having fun with it! Our Birdly ticket sales are nearly equivalent now to pre-COVID levels, despite the Illinois capacity restrictions limiting overall museum admissions. In other words, capture is up and Birdly will generate six figures this year despite the capacity restrictions.”
MEGAN WILLIAMS, DIRECTOR, BUSINESS ENTERPRISES, THE FIELD MUSEUM
About Birdly
Science centers have long offered airplane and rocket flight simulators, but Birdly delivers a full-body flying experience for natural history and technology enthusiasts alike. Unlike the side-effects of conventional VR, Birdly eliminates the nauseating sensory disconnect by taking the rider’s body on the journey in perfect visual, acoustic and equilibrium synchronicity. Built on the bio-mechanics of flight, this mission-aligned simulator is a location-based attraction that offers a novel, Instagram-friendly, experiential approach to conservation storytelling. With avatars like birds, pterosaurs, insects and manta rays, Birdly blends haptic engineering, robotics, game design, and virtual reality to take audiences on an exhilarating free-exploration of the natural world.