Flying Saucers Open in
Tomorrowland
August 6, 1961
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On August 6, 1961 one of my all time favorite
attractions, The Flying Saucers opened in Disneyland's Tomorrowland. The ride actually allowed guests to board
their own personal flying saucers. The saucers flew several inches off of the
16,000 square foot arena floor on a cushion of air, similar to how an air
hockey game works. Once in flight, the Flying Saucers were very much like bumper
cars with guests ramming each other with their saucers.
At
the beginning of the ride, saucers were subjected to a high volume of low-pressure
air directed underneath them by means of a grid of circular valves. As the
saucers floated and moved above the field, the valves would open and close in
response to their proximity. As guests shifted their weight in any direction by
leaning, the saucer movement would respond. If the weight was centered,
the saucer would begin to "hop" up and down as the air randomly
escaped around the plenum. All that was required to regain control was for the
guest to lean in any direction.
The
ride consisted of two sets of saucers (approximately 14 each) on a
semi-circular field and a mechanical boom that would sweep the arc of the field
and corral one set of saucers in the loading area. As the boom moved, it would
free the other set of saucers (with their new riders) from their loading area
to roam the field while the other set was unloaded and loaded in-turn. Sadly, the ride was expensive to operate,
maintenance was intensive, and it did not fit the normal Disneyland "guest
flow" in that a relatively small number of riders were able to participate
on any given day. After only five years of flight, when the transition to the New
Tomorrowland took place, the Flying Saucers did not survive. When New
Tomorrowland opened in 1967, the space that The Flying Saucers had once
occupied had been transformed into the Tomorrowland
Stage.
On
June 15, 2012, a new ride using similar technology opened in Cars
Land inside Disneyland's sister park, Disney
California Adventure. This ride is named Luigi's
Flying Tires, and is themed on Luigi's Tire Shop from the film Cars This version holds two or
three passengers per ride vehicle instead of one. And that’s what happened today in Disneyland
history,
Another ride I would have loved to try! It seems like everywhere you look in Tomorrowland, if you look closely, there's all kinds of legacy stuff just hanging out or re-purposed into other attractions. I look forward to reading about more of these rides from Gayle who's actually been on all of them.
ReplyDeleteThank you Robert for your kind words! Part of the magic of Disney is the ability to hand down the stories and history to the next generation with the hopes that it is a legacy that they too will hold dear.
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