Talaat Captan built Air Hollywood so filmmakers could shoot airport and in-flight scenes without a real airport or a real plane. Some years later he found another use for those sets: helping families with autistic children practice air travel before they take a real flight. That program is Open Sky for Autism. Here is how it began, what a session involves, and why families and volunteers keep coming back.
Why air travel is hard for many families
Airports are loud, crowded and unpredictable. Travelers wait in lines, hand over bags, pass through security screening, sit in a busy lounge and then spend hours in a cabin full of new sounds and sensations. Most adults simply put up with it. For a child on the autism spectrum, each of those steps can be overwhelming, and a stressful moment at security or on board can derail a whole trip. Many families decide it is easier not to fly at all.
Open Sky for Autism exists to change that. Its stated aim, on openskyforautism.com, is to help families living with autism and other developmental disabilities gain the confidence, comfort and enjoyment of air travel. It does this through acclimation, repetition and supervision in a realistic airport and flight simulation.
How the program began
In a 2019 interview with KFI AM 640, Captan explained where the idea came from. About five years earlier, he had watched a family struggling at security at Los Angeles International Airport. He later learned that the boy was autistic, and the moment stayed with him. He realized that Air Hollywood already had what such families need: a full airport environment and aircraft cabins where they could rehearse every step of a trip with no pressure and no real departure time.
A 2016 release on the program puts its start in 2014. Captan brought in REACH, a nonprofit founded in 1969 that supports people with lifelong disabilities including autism, cerebral palsy and Down syndrome. REACH staff provide hands-on help at each station. He also recruited aviation professionals to take part as volunteers.
It was a natural step for a studio that began with a film production. The story of how Captan turned a difficult airport shoot into the world’s first aviation-themed studio is told in How Talaat Captan Turned a Ground Control Setback into Air Hollywood.
What happens at an Open Sky for Autism event
The program follows the real sequence of a commercial trip, using Air Hollywood’s standing sets. According to the program’s website and press coverage, a session includes:
- Airport arrival: families arrive at a realistic terminal setting.
- Ticketing, check-in and baggage: they pick up boarding passes at an airline counter and check bags, as they would on a travel day.
- Security screening: real TSA officers volunteer to run the checkpoint, so children can experience screening in a calm setting. KCLU reported that more than a dozen TSA agents took part in one 2019 event.
- Departure lounge and boarding: families wait at the gate, learning that waiting is a normal part of flying, and then board an aircraft cabin.
- In-flight simulation: volunteer flight attendants walk passengers through seating and safety routines, followed by a short simulated flight with engine noise and movement.
- Deplaning: the trip ends the way a real one does, with passengers leaving the aircraft.
As KCLU’s Lance Orozco pointed out, the sets are fake, but the airline and security staff are real. That mix is what makes the rehearsal useful. Children meet the uniforms, the procedures and the sounds they will face at a real airport, in a place where they can stop, repeat a step or take a break.
Free to families, by design
Open Sky for Autism is free for families, and lunch is included. To make sure registered seats are actually used, the program asks for a small deposit when families sign up. The deposit is fully refunded at the door. The program’s website explains the reasoning plainly: free events tend to fill up fast, but some registrants then don’t come, and in a program with limited seating every empty seat is a family that missed out.
Donations to the program go through REACH, which is a registered 501(c)(3) partner. Air Hollywood hosts the events on its own stages and sets.
The scale of the program
The program has grown well beyond a single trial run. By 2016, more than 800 families had taken part. In 2019, KFI reported that events were being held twice a year, in spring and fall, with simulated flights running hourly for groups of children. KCLU noted at the time that the program had been running for five years. In the same story, Captan said it felt great when families came back to share travel success stories, and that remains the best measure of what Open Sky for Autism does.
National outlets have also covered it. A 2017 CBS News report by Mireya Villarreal, archived on Air Hollywood’s news page, described the event as a way to reduce the stress of air travel for families living with autism and other developmental disabilities.
Part of a wider idea
Open Sky for Autism is one of several ways Captan has used film sets to help people fly with more confidence. Air Hollywood’s sets have also been used to help adults overcome a fear of flying, a story covered by NPR and summarized in our post on fearful fliers. The same attention to realism shows up in the Pan Am Experience, the 1970s dinner flight described in our summary of CNN Travel’s feature.
Families who want to take part can find upcoming event dates and registration on openskyforautism.com. To learn more about the studio behind the program, visit Air Hollywood’s page for Talaat Captan, or explore his other ventures.
