I tried VR on Alpenexpress last month. In terms of likelihood of throwing up, I've no idea how an installation on Air would compare to it of course, but on there it wasn't an issue as the movements on screen were synchronised with the ride very well. It's a good job they were because even though I know that ride well I was losing track of where I was on the ride and which curve was coming next. There are times where the footage doesn't make the route you'll take obvious, so you can't brace as you normally would. The headset is also quite tight when properly fitted. All in all it may not be illness inducing, but it's not exactly comfortable.
The actual VR environment isn't bad. It's a bit low quality, which probably comes down to the phone in the headset's relative lack of processing power. EP use the park mascots to get around this; they're CGI cartoon characters so you don't expect total realism, even if they do look amazing in the 4D shows by comparison. The mascots are used quite well in a similar situation to their first 4D film, and I guess using recognisable characters also means you feel more involved from the outset and don't wonder what's supposed to be going on so much. Towers of course don't have characters to use any more, so would probably look at using an IP. That choice would undoubtedly be very important.
Operations would be a big concern for me with VR on Air, as VR is definitely a recipe for faff. Pre-VR Alpenexpress had an amazing throughput for a powered coaster, thanks mostly to dispatch times averaging about 20 seconds. They're now about 4 times slower, and that's only loading about 5 rows for VR! Even then the hosts didn't spot on my second ride that I was having trouble with fitting the headset before they dispatched (it had rained and a rain cover on the headset was covering a strap adjuster, so I couldn't find it and had to ride holding the headset to my face). If the station modifications on Air were to provide rooms for fitting, calibration etc. before you reached the air gates that would be an improvement over the makeshift implementation on Alpenexpress. I still think it would slow down dispatches however, and we all know Air's queue doesn't move as well as some others at Towers.
Ultimately however I just don't like the concept of giving guests a VR headset to wear while riding a coaster. People like us travel around the world to seek out incredible coasters that are fantastically well presented, and I feel like VR totally flies in the face of parks trying to deliver that kind of ride. On a coaster you see the ride's surroundings rushing past your eyes, and what you see matches up entirely with what you physically feel. That's probably why a traditional simulator ride rocking you about in front of a screen isn't a patch on a coaster. Also, sometimes coasters are put into environments that are intricately themed or landscaped, often at great expense. A virtual environment on a headset loses both the sight and feeling of the real movement and the authenticity of the physical area around the ride which of course actually exists. Put a headset on and you might as well be sat in a seat on the end of a robot arm in a tin shed, as with the range of movement that those can offer they could probably give you 90% or more of the same experience as being on a VR coaster.
