Figure 13. One way to escape the clutches of gravity for a short period of time is to fly in the KC-135 parabolic airplane. Both humans and animals find the floating experience to be very strange! In fact, because of the disorientation that occurs duri ng the floating experience, many people become very sick, which has led to a nickname for the flight - the vomit comet! The patch that is given to individuals who have flown on the aircraft depicts very accurately the possible ill effects of flying on th e KC-135.