vomit comet
n.— «Chris had just ridden the new roller coaster four times in a row, but he insisted he was still seeing things straight. The coaster is part of perhaps the park’s weirdest section of all, called Paradise Pier. It’s a tribute to the old-fashioned seaside amusement parks with their “Hey-sailor-win-a-kewpie- doll” carnival games and vomit-comet rides that Walt Disney himself detested.» —“Disney’s Virtual California Theme park makes actual travel superfluous” by Steve Rubenstein San Francisco Chronicle (California) Feb. 8, 2001. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Names don’t always mean what you think they mean. Main Street in San Francisco is named after businessman Charles Main, and Snowflake, Arizona, honors two guys named Snow and Flake. Plus, big words for small people: A colorful new book...
Names don’t always mean what you think they mean. Main Street in San Francisco is named for businessman Charles Main. Snowflake, Arizona, is named for Erastus Snow and William Jordan Flake. This is part of a complete episode.
Related
I was a paratrooper in the army. On occassion reserve army pilots would fly us to drop zones. Since they were reserve and didn’t fly a lot they’d like to go very fast and fly combat maneuvers. They would alternately climb, dive, roll left, roll right. Some paratroopers would become air sick and vomit. The wretching and the smell would make others vomit as well. The flight would become known as a vomit comet.
Right—similar to what is explained in the full entry, which is linked in two places above.
My experience with the vomit comet is in a padded aircraftwhich suddenly climbs so fast you achieve a state of weightlessness which can last up to a minute,then shocking reality ,then again the climb..On those days it’s best to skip breakfast,if you don’t want to see it floating..