History / Legacy

Throughout his lifetime, Peter Foy applied his artistic vision and mechanical ingenuity to the challenge of safely flying performers in a variety of different and often difficult circumstances. His creation of the Inter-Related Pendulum helped define Mary Martin’s barnstorming performance as Peter Pan for the 1954 Broadway musical and ushered in a new era of spectacular, highly-controlled, natural-looking free flight. 

In the years that followed, Foy introduced a series of wholly new flying systems, each created to remedy a problem or redefine a flying aesthetic. He created the Floating Pulley system in 1958 as a means of flying actors in low-height venues. His determination to preserve the magic of theatrical flight by concealing its mechanism from the audience’s view led to his introduction of the Track-On-Track system, an ingenious arrangement allowing independent control of lift and travel, in 1962.

Flying by Foy was incorporated in 1967 as Foy Inventerprises, a portmanteau which may best express Peter Foy’s singular, creative dedication to improving the art of flying, and the ongoing developmental drive of the company that bears his name. 

The Inter-Reacting Compensator, a complex flying system designed to be even less conspicuous to the audience, debuted in 1977 as a part of the first fully-motorized integrated touring truss developed by Foy for the special demands of the Ice Capades.

Foy introduced the first completely self-contained radio-controlled flying system for the Osaka Flower Expo in 1990, and pioneered the development of sophisticated automated systems for flying performers, emerging as a leader in stage flight automation for the 21st Century. 

Flying by Foy provided simulations of weightlessness for NASA during the Gemini and Apollo space programs, sent Olympic Gold Medalist Nadia Comăneci soaring hundreds of feet above New York’s Time Square for the 2004 Olympic Torch Relay and gracefully glided the Wright Flyer Replica over the heads of dignitaries, aviators and luminaries at the grand opening of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, to mark the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ historic first flight.

Flying by Foy’s continuing tradition of consummate flying expertise, relentless innovation and an unparalleled passion for safety delivers world-class flying on any scale, from the simply elegant to the simply phenomenal.