Looking at another site yesterday, I came across a reference to a new ride system by Vekoma called "Pandora's Box". Interesting coincidence? The concept is that a row of seats is mounted to a floor to ceiling pole that can be many stories in height, and the row of seats can go up and down the pole, spin around it horizontally, and also rotate the row to invert the riders. But what truly makes it interesting is that the poles themselves can be mounted on a track such that the entire thing moves through a ride building. There is a blurb about it on the Vekoma web site, but the more interesting item is a You Tube simulation video.
So I started to imagine the sensation of mounting a "banshee" and having it fly off the edge of a cliff going down several stories in between floating islands and rising back up through them. You travel throughout Pandora, taking advantage of the gorgeous scenic vistas. Then, coming upon the invasion force of aircraft below you, you swoop down in between them into a dogfight sequence. This has real potential as an E-ticket experience.
I have no clue if this is what Disney is bouncing around. The earlier leaked artwork definitely did not show the flight simulator on a moving track. But after RSR in California, it's clear that if Disney wants to go "all in", they are still capable of creating great E-ticket attractions. This concept is definitely worth a look and the inevitable discussion afterwards.
One thing's for sure - if Disney doesn't use this, I sure hope Universal comes up with a way to do so.