montezooma

Working on it

Well that about covers all things Aero World for the time being. I still have quite a lot of stuff but it is for the ultimate die hard fan. There is a very detailed park budget, Economic Feasibility study and the autobiography of the park written by Meyers. It is a lot of detailed information and it is all quite interesting . If there is interest I will take the time to scan it all in and post it later on. Although the Aero World project was grounded (there are too many easy "air" puns with this park) Meyers dreams of an aviation park still had wings. His next site was Arizona and the park would have been called Aero Park America. This project will be featured later in season 5. The project budget is very detailed and broken down into each ride, show, arcade, merchandise and misc. items of area of the park would have cost. Ever wondered what a feasibility study contains? Lots and lots of information that is needed to raise money for a project as large as Aero World and finally the story of the park... If there is interest in this stuff please let me know

^ Vekoma was never involved with the PGA Hyper Coaster project...all will be revealed shortly.

I love that lady, she reminds me of a Canadian Dawn French. Well I know what I am doing for my next birthday!

Good News Everyone! I have solved the photo bucket issue and all photos are back! Sorry for the technical difficulties.

Yikes! Sorry everyone looks like there are some photobucket issues. I will try to resolve shortly and let you know when they are back up.

Yes, and speaking of cute parks...here are a few shots of the El Cajon Family Fun Center when it first opened.

Yes that Family Fun Center in El Cajon was part of a chain of parks that my family owned throughout Southern California. The one that was on Fletcher Parkway that was bulldozed for the 125 was the original of the parks. It originally opened with just 18 holes of miniature golf and a candy vending machine. It later grew into a full fledged Family Entertainment Center with 5 miniature golf courses, batting cages, bumper boats, go karts, a huge video and pinball arcade and those awesome 3 water slides. The El Cajon park was built as a replacement for the La Mesa Park. It is now owned by Boomers! and has fallen into a sad state of disrepair. Anywho, those of us that grew up in the San Diego area might remember Marshal Scotty's Playland Park. It was a small kiddy and picnic park located east of El Cajon. It featured some typical flat rides including a Ferris Wheel, Merry-Go-Round, Octopus, Tilt-a whirl, Chance CP Huntington Train, a kiddie Coaster and several other small kiddie rides. Here are a few pictures.

Of course this was covered in Shane's Amusement Attic (from the hidden archives of Eddie) Check out the goods here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=40361&p=975048&hilit=Six+Flags+Atlantis#p975048 It seems like this legendary water park sank into oblivion just like it's namesake.

Yes, Meyers is still alive and he posts on this thread sometimes. His business partner Bill Lee passed away several years ago. My family almost partnered with Bill on a water park project out in the east county of San Diego. Interesting that as a child I used to go in to Bill's office and admire all the plans for Aero World and then several years later I was in his office negotiating water park partnerships. Our water park concept never materialized (it was on the site of Marshall Scotty's Playland) and on a sad note when my family opened a Family Fun Center in El Cajon, CA we pulled a great deal of business away from Marshall Scotty's which eventually lead to its closure. (yes I have guilt issues) This is what Disney calls "the circle of life"

Aero World was always making news in San Diego...even when the project was grounded

Great post Robb! Interesting to see what the place looks like now. I used to drive by it all the time when it was vacant land and imagine it with the park there. Strange, back in the hey day of theme park construction that San Diego was not able to pull off a major theme park. The demographics, weather and tourism would have certainly sustained a major park. I think back in the 80’s Sea World was doing a healthy 3.5 − 4 million visitors annually. There was another concept that was proposed for the city call “Gold Springs Country”…I just so happen to have all the information and renderings for that park also. I will share that in an upcoming update but for now I will finish up with another look at Aero World. Interesting story about how I came to have all this Aero World material. Meyers Jacobson, who was the major developer of this project came across my thread here on TPR and contacted me. He actually remembered me as the little kid who used to always come by his office and give him drawings of roller coasters. He felt this would be a great forum to share his park material, so he went through his “attic” and entrusted all the park material to me. I am honored and so thankful to Meyers for giving this stuff to me and thrilled to feature it here for an audience that really can enjoy the coolness that this park could have been. Thanks Meyers! Now please fasten your seat belts for one more look at San Diego’s Aero World. Thanks for Flying…buh bye, Shane

^ Sid, have you been peeking in the attic when I am not looking?

Some more renderings of how the park was envisioned to be.

I Agree with it being more a Museum. It might've worked better as Indoor Amusement Park. Something Like AdventureDome with Aviation Maybe? Hearing about AeroWorld; Reminds me as an Outdoor Six Flags Power Plant/ Six Flags Autoworld Aero World was definitely designed around famous airplanes and aviation history but Meyers realised that this would have a limited appeal to a specific market. He built the theme park with all kinds of rides, shows, restaurants and retail around the Aviation theme to make it have a very broad family appeal. The park today would have been more like a Busch park rather than a Six Flags park. As you can see from this next post it has a more "theme park" look to it rather than a museum.

Aero World was planned for the Mira Mesa area of San Diego. It actually was very close to becoming a reality. As a kid I would go to the offices quite often to get caught up on the progress of the park. Meyers Jacobson was the genius behind this project. He was a huge aviation fan and it was his concept to marry the aviation museum aspect with the family fun of a theme park. A huge part of getting this theme park off the ground was their attempt to get the Spruce Goose to set up permanent display at the park. The struggle to get this huge air/seacraft to the park went on for years but eventually went to the Queen Mary in Long Beach. This was probably the first strike against the park. Another huge feature of the park was going to be daily air shows but since the park was in the flight path of the Mira Mar naval Air Force Base they navy strongly opposed them. Eventually Aero World was approved by the city of San Diego along with the daily air shows. The land was purchased and zoned for the park. Unfortunately the parks timing came about during the late 70’s and early 80’s and interest rates were huge and getting financing for the project never materialized. The concept later materialized in Arizona as Aero Park America. Those plans will also be featured as part of this Season. Here is a more in depth look at the different theme areas of the park. The below image shows the entrance to the park as well as the European Village section of the park. This major ride of this area was to be an Arrow Flume. In this photo you can see the three themed areas of Barnstormers Fair, The Early Bird Aerodrome and Red Baron Aerodrome. Some rides of significance can clearly be seen in these areas. You can see the "Flying Tiger Cargo Coaster" which was to be an Arrow mine coaster as it intertwines with the rail road and the old fashion car ride. There also seems to be a barnstormer ride, which would have been a perfect ride for this park. There is a carousel next to a games area which seems very similar to the games section of the County Fair section of the Great America parks. To the right and off the path a bit was to be a Wood Coaster that was going to be added several years after the park opened. A dark ride was also housed in the building to the right in the Early Bird Aerodrome section. This section of the park would have been the action area of the park. It had a very futuristic feel and represented the latest in thrill rides for that time. A very large Arrow steel looping coaster dubbed "the Meteor" anchored the section as well as the "Jet Catapult", a Schwarzkopf shuttle loop that was themed to an aircraft carrier. There was also a Enterprise in the area and many of the renderings show a Parachute tower, but it doesn't seem to be on the site plan.

Shane, was this the proposed Morgan leveator lift hyper? No. With all the Great America buzz going on now I will feature the infamous PGA Morgan elevator lift coaster soon.

The above article briefly mentioned a park by the name of Air World being developed in San Diego. The actual name of the park was AeroWorld and here is an exclusive look at one of the most original theme park concepts that never was. There is still more to come of this beautiful concept so keep a close eye on this thread for more.

WOW this is big news...but check out the other big news: Season 5 of Shane's Amusement Attic. Here is a sneak peek at just one of the exclusives we have for you this year. Speaking of a new Entertainment District, here is a look at the old proposed Great American "Front Gate" Entertainment project. At one point this park really had some potential.

This season all the attachments are scanned in at high def. So make sure you click on the images to get all the details!

Hello TPR, and welcome to the fifth season of Shane's Amusement Attic. I have got some great stuff for you this season. Old Stuff, Industry Stuff and some pretty nifty EXCLUSIVE stuff you will only see here in Shane's Amusement Attic. (I guess that is what exclusive means) So who is this Shane guy you ask? I am just like the rest of you...just a nerdy kid that loved roller coasters. I took that geeky passion and turned it into a career that has been most enjoyable. It all started back in the sleepy town of San Diego. Rather than me tell you about it why don't you read it for yourself. Below is an article that appeared in the San Diego Union when I was just a 14 (1979) year old kid. It would seem that back in those days my "unique" hobby was worth a story in the news paper. This article is a nice segway into our first exclusive. Take note of the highlighted paragraph and get ready to take flight. Season 5 begins NOW!

Dibs on the water slides!

I am giving Carowinds’ Thunder Road some love because I like the name and it is in two States!

2 More Days... The HUNT is on…or not

Hmmmm...what's this?