Editing To Fly! (section)

=== Audience response ===
[[File:To Fly! balloon.png|left|thumb|upright=1.4|As the squared scene transitions to this one, audiences were heard exclaiming in awe.|alt=A hot-air balloon ascends to a clear sky]]

The Smithsonian reported a diverse demographic of audiences,<ref name=":14" /> who were reportedly "astonished" by ''To Fly!''{{'s}} IMAX vertiginous shots. Shouts and gasps were heard in screenings,<ref name=":32" /><ref name=":26" /> especially during the opening sequence—where people exclaimed in awe—as well as at the Blue Angels and hang-gliding scenes.<ref name=":18" /><ref name="Moon">
Mansfield, Paul (January 17, 1998). "I reached for the moon - and touched it". News. ''[[The Times]]''. No. 66101. [[London]]: [[News UK]]. col S, p.27.</ref> Others, however, screamed in fright and "hastily" left the theater during its vertiginous scenes; journalist [[Douglas Preston]] attributed this to nausea.<ref name=":16">{{Cite book|last=Griffiths|first=Alison|title=Shivers Down Your Spine: Cinema, Museums, and the Immersive View|date=June 11, 2013|publisher=[[Columbia University Press]]|isbn=978-0231129893|chapter=From Daguerreotype to IMAX Screen: Multimedia and IMAX at the Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>{{Rp|225}} For some, uncontrollable dizziness lingered long after the film had finished,<ref name="Moon" /><ref name=":42" /> equated by ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine with [[airsickness]].<ref name=":3" /> Vomit bags were unavailable, making the film inaccessible for people with vertigo.<ref name="Moon" /><ref name=":46">{{Cite news|last=Himowitz|first=Michael J.|date=July 1, 1976|title=Aerospace Museum Makes Fancy Out Of Flight|volume=133|page=3|work=[[The Baltimore Sun|The Evening Sun]]|issue=64|location=[[Baltimore]]|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91307380/|access-date=December 28, 2021|via=[[Newspapers.com]] {{Open access}}|archive-date=December 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211228162918/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91307380/the-evening-sun/|url-status=live}}</ref> Later, the NASM added pre-entry warnings about potential dizziness and [[motion sickness]].<ref name=":10">{{Cite book |last1=Geiger |first1=Jeffrey |title=Cinematicity in Media History |last2=Littau |first2=Karin |date=November 30, 2013 |publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]] |isbn=9780748676149 |pages=140 & 143}}</ref> On the contrary, some people noted they were able to watch ''To Fly!'' without getting scared due to it being illusionary.<ref name=":1" />

Many who watched the film returned with their children to rewatch it, akin to a generational tradition.<ref name=":1" /> Similar remarks were made by [[Carl Sagan]], who remained astonished after seeing it more than five times at the NASM.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Sagan |first1=Carl |title=[[The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark]] |last2=Druyan |first2=Ann |publisher=[[Random House]] |year=1995 |isbn=0-345-40946-9 |pages=348 |oclc=32855551 |author-link=Carl Sagan |author-link2=Ann Druyan}}</ref> Several pilots credited the film for propelling their interest in aviation,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pimentel |first=Dan |date=May 8, 2023 |title=Capturing the Essence of Flying |url=https://www.flyingmag.com/capturing-the-essence-of-flying/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230509032450/https://www.flyingmag.com/capturing-the-essence-of-flying/ |archive-date=May 9, 2023 |access-date=August 30, 2023 |website=[[Flying (magazine)|Flying]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Virts |first=Terry W. |title=How to Astronaut: An Insider's Guide to Leaving Planet Earth |publisher=[[Workman Publishing Company]] |year=2020 |isbn=978-1523512041 |at=First page of "Making Movies" |author-link=Terry W. Virts}}</ref> including astronaut [[Terry W. Virts]] to whom ''To Fly!'' is his first, and among his most memorable, childhood IMAX films.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ziv |first=Stav |date=May 10, 2016 |title='A Beautiful Planet' Whisks Viewers to Space for 45 Minutes |url=https://www.newsweek.com/beautiful-planet-whisks-viewers-space-45-minutes-458109 |url-access=limited |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624033256/https://www.newsweek.com/beautiful-planet-whisks-viewers-space-45-minutes-458109 |archive-date=June 24, 2021 |access-date=July 1, 2021 |website=[[Newsweek]]}}</ref> Dan Moran of the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' said it is among the few films that kept Pictorium audiences awake instead of asleep.<ref name=":29">{{Cite web|last=Moran|first=Dan|date=June 12, 2018|title=The Pictorium, Great America's IMAX pioneer, bids a sudden and quiet departure|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lake-county-news-sun/opinion/ct-lns-six-flags-great-america-pictorium-st-0613-story.html|url-access=subscription|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210622015114/https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/lake-county-news-sun/opinion/ct-lns-six-flags-great-america-pictorium-st-0613-story.html|archive-date=June 22, 2021|access-date=November 30, 2021|website=[[Lake County News-Sun]]|publisher=|location=[[Gurnee, Illinois]]|agency=[[Chicago Tribune]]}}</ref> The [[2011 Virginia earthquake]] coincided with ''To Fly!''{{'s}} Horseshoe Falls scene at Lockheed Martin; projectionist Keith Madden and audiences assumed the shaking they felt came from the theater's [[subwoofer]]s rather than an earthquake.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Madden |first1=Keith |last2=Trenner |first2=Pat |date=October 4, 2011 |title=Is it Real, or is it IMAX? |url=https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/is-it-real-or-is-it-imax-96193008/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210306121333/https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/is-it-real-or-is-it-imax-96193008/ |archive-date=March 6, 2021 |access-date=November 28, 2021 |website=[[Air & Space/Smithsonian]] |location=[[Washington, D.C.]]}}</ref> Modern expert hang-gliders were surprised at the hang-gliding stunt by Wills, described as dynamic yet on an "impossibly simple craft".<ref name=":34">{{Cite web |last=Glenshaw |first=Paul |date=August 2019 |title=Born in the 1960s, The Sport of Hang Gliding Still Hangs On |url=https://www.airspacemag.com/airspacemag/rise-and-fall-of-hang-gliding-180972601/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210407230622/https://www.airspacemag.com/airspacemag/rise-and-fall-of-hang-gliding-180972601/ |archive-date=April 7, 2021 |access-date=November 28, 2021 |website=[[Air & Space/Smithsonian]] |location=[[Washington, D.C.]]}}</ref>

Responding to the film's popularity, Bill McCabe of the DuPont Aerospace Enterprise said that because humans have a supposedly innate interest in flying, the film has a universal appeal.<ref name="WHYY">{{Cite web |last=Wilmore |first=Bill |date=March 20, 2011 |orig-date=June 25, 1996 |title="To Fly" Segment featured on Channel 12 WHYY |url=https://digital.hagley.org/VID_2011320_B03_ID06_01 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211220124550/https://digital.hagley.org/VID_2011320_B03_ID06_01 |archive-date=December 20, 2021 |access-date=December 20, 2021 |publisher=[[WHYY-TV]] |via=[[Hagley Digital Archives]]}}</ref> Several educators categorized it as [[educational entertainment]],<ref name=":40" /> though with less interest among field trip groups than other IMAX documentaries.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Baca |first=Ricardo |author-link=Ricardo Baca |date=August 1, 2011 |title=A MEGA experience |work=[[Corpus Christi Caller-Times]] |publisher=[[Gannett]] |issn=0894-5365 |id=[[ProQuest]] [https://www.proquest.com/docview/2569233136/3EA18E0C94F34178PQ/1 2569233136]}}</ref> The audience response prompted the Smithsonian to write a tagline on their website: "''Feel'' the Earth Drop Away Beneath You".<ref name=":16" />{{Rp|229}} "Feel" was later changed to "Watch". In 2013 to commemorate its 37th anniversary, a new poster artwork was created with the tagline "Go where dreams have wings", and in 2016, a 40th-anniversary one-minute [[Trailer (promotion)|trailer]] was released.<ref name=":13" /> MacGillivray opined that the film's "unpretentiousness and lightheartedness" makes it a form of [[escapism]] and its unconventional ending makes it "more profound and in a way, more lasting".<ref name=":1" />