Ultralight WWI type planes equipped with high power 'paintball' machine guns and the tail is equipped with a smoke stack so when you are hit the tail or wing goes "on fire".
Like a "miles" laser set but complete with effects.
Depending on the game's computer board you must comply to start spinning downwards "out of control" only to make an emergency landing either in the field or landing on one wheel. Other parts of the game include landing with one of the motors all all motors turned off.
Of course the pilots must first learn to do each of the "losing" parts just like a judo fighter first thing learns to fall.
And there is a long list of safety rules because this is a game that no one was ever hurt in.
Edited: The paintball itself is redundant. An imaging system can be used instead. The important part is the sounds and the "hit" behavior complete with billowing smoke.-- pashute, Sep 11 2011 miles laser system http://www.globalse.../fm/17-12-7/ch3.htm [pashute, Sep 11 2011] ultralight wwi three-wing (tri) plane http://www.youtube....watch?v=6Qsqfbp1Ceg [pashute, Sep 12 2011] paintless paintball takes the pain away http://www.youtube....watch?v=q5J2JI8lTSM [pashute, Sep 12 2011] Nice idea, but a lot of ultralights have their work cut out just to get airborne in the first place; start hitting them with things - even paintballs - and throwing them around the sky, and all of a sudden it can all get terribly loud and expensive.
Using an decent aerobatic wood-and-canvas airframe, like a replica WW1 fighter, would be OK - but remember these designs were far from viceless, and often notoriously difficult to fly, let alone fight.-- 8th of 7, Sep 11 2011 [+] if the above is a problem, then it's a mere technical detail.
One solution would be to use smaller RC aircraft with (scaled) performance envelopes superior to their WWI counterparts, then insert software into the control system to limit them to a narrower fictitious envelope.
So, for example, if you tried a maneuver which would have put a Sopwith Camel into an unrecoverable flat spin, the computer takes over the controls, and executes an imitation of a flat spin, then quietly lands and parks the plane.
You could call it "Fokkers & Spads."-- mouseposture, Sep 11 2011 Oh, so not like air guitar then...-- normzone, Sep 11 2011 thanks 21. Sorry I didnt search enough for paintball :-(
Anyway, this is more about the effects than the paintball itself. So maybe a digital system with images of the other airplane in the pilot's screen showing the bullets leaving your plane, while the sound effects are real and loud so spectators an d players hear it clearly.... If they hit, real smoke billows from the rear or wing, and the hit pilot must spin and land on one wheel or "crash land" in field (designated for "crash landing").
Maybe I should change idea name to air paintlessball.-- pashute, Sep 12 2011 random, halfbakery