Disney's Flying Saucers

[pgathriller]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_Flying_Saucers

 

I was browsing Wikipedia last night and I came across this. I remember the Flying Saucer ride from RCT and I never knew it used to be an actual ride. I thought it was some made up ride for the game. But anyways I find this concept really interesting. Being able to fly your own hover craft and bump into people just like bumper cars. I was wondering if anyone might have some more information about this ride and maybe some pictures. I know this ride is dated back to the early and mid 60's but I thought I'd give it a shot.

 

* Oh and does anybody know what they did with it? I know they removed it because of mechancical problems but is it locked up in storage or what?

 

* And who is the manufacturer of this unique ride?

 

Thanks

[jsahockey09]

I've been seeing a lot of things on TV lately about them. ON shows like Mythbusters and stuff like that they just had a whole special on hovercrafts. From what I've seen it is just a platform with a seat and some air source like a leaf blower with suffice for the source. On the bottom is probably the most crucial part because you need an air tight skirt which is what makes it tear.

 

My guess is that the mechanical issues they had were torn skirts.

[Homer]

1. I bet it was probably Walt himself that designed this ride.

 

2. I think it was probably similar to that UFO/Flying Saucer bumper cars ride that is in RCT.

[RIP Psyclone]

There is a good segment about the Flying Saucers on the old Extinct Attractions Club DVD of Adventure Thru Inner Space. Imagineer and Disney Legend Bob Gurr discusses the development and ultimate demise of the attraction. The newer DVD of ATIS (the special edition) has the Flying Saucers material trimmed down, but still has a bit about it.

[BrownStreak]

Check out this website:

 

http://www.yesterland.com/

 

There you will find a bunch of information about nearly all of the now gone attractions from Disneyland and even already gone items from DCA and even the surrounding area.

[MidtownCoaster]

I would love to see this concept updated. I think moving it indoors and with some newer technology, this could be a really neat addition.

[pgathriller]

Thanks for the link BrownStreak. Here is a direct link to the Flying Saucers Ride from Brownstreak's link. Shows some pictures.

 

http://www.yesterland.com/saucers.html

 

As with Midtown Coaster, I would love to see this ride updated. Although it still would probably be a mechanical nightmare. I still don't understand how something like this would generate enough air to support the saucer and the rider. I understand what the ride looks like now but I still don't understand how this ride works mechanically. Can anyone clarify for me by any chance?

[Alpenguy]

In the (I think out of print) book Rollercoasters, Flumes, and Flying Saucers there's a very extensive chapter on it, straight from Ed Morgan and Karl Bacon. It was entirely Arrow engineered, and worked with unpowered cars pretty much just like a giant air hockey table.

 

The intricate part is that the table had 50,000+ valves that worked in a balanced plenum situation (phrase from the book) so that the air pressure inside was just enough to hold the valves closed, but a saucer above put enough pressure down that it forced the valves under it open. That way the table didn't take too much power and wasn't outrageously loud. Apparently if you got a saucer up to speed, the valves behind it could be seen closing in a little trail a few feet back.

 

The air reservoir was about 6' high under the table so maintenance could walk through it, and the table itself was located where Honey I Shrunk the Audience is now. It had two main areas and a really cool loading boom system. Basically each of the two main areas was shaped like a half-circle, and there was exactly enough space for a cycle of saucers to park in a little area on the flat bottom of the circle, but split in half. A big moving arm pivoted from the middle of the half circle and swept around from each outside end. One set of saucers would be loading with the boom holding them in the small loading area, while the other set was in the main ride area having fun. Then the boom swept across to shove all the riding saucers into the loading area, while simultaneously letting the newly-loaded saucers into the main ride area. There were two of these semi-circles, each with two sets of saucers, so overall there were 4 sets, 1 always running on each side. If this isn't clear I'll draw a diagram tomorrow.

 

Apparently the thing was a maintenance hog, with not only the pumps and compressors under extreme stress constantly, but the valves were so numerous that minor damage started to build up very quickly to causing problems with the pressure balance. It also had horrible capacity in ticket-book times: with 16 saucers in each set, figure 800 an hour with perfect cycles of only 2 minutes including boom movement time, which was at least 30 seconds going each way. That's not much time, so figure 3 minutes including boom movement time, and it's already down to less than 600 an hour... 1/5 that of Pirates, and just barely ahead of Peter Pan.

 

I think it would be outrageously awesome if a smaller park with some guts and money (Knobels, cough, easier than Flying Turns I'm sure) resurrected this ride concept, but it wouldn't work too well back in Disneyland. I know I'd travel a long ways to try REAL hovercraft bumper cars.

[BrownStreak]

The very short lived indoor amusement park in Niagara Falls, US (Falls Street Fair) had round bumper cars that reminded me of the saucers.. They had no steering wheels- instead you had sticks on either side and you pushed them both forward to go forward or alternated them to turn.

[YoshiFan]

^ Dorney has those type of bumper cars. I hate them because they are low capacity (10 - 11 cars out at once), they hurt your hands, the impact is minimal and they sometimes shut the ride down to refuel the cars.

[robbalvey]

This is one of those things where you go "Is the thought of an old, defunct attraction better than the actual reality of it?" Sure it looks cool in the photos, and the idea sounds cool on paper, but if it were still around today, would any of us think it's really THAT cool?

 

I can remember talking to a couple of people when I worked at Disneyland who had been on it and they all said "it wasn't that much better than your typical bumper cars or bumper boats ride."

 

And looking at the photos and videos I've seen of it, other than the uniqueness of hovering on air...slowly....I'd have to say they are probably right.

 

It's like Rocket Rods. I talk to so many people today who are like "Yeah, that ride looked AWESOME, I wish I could have ridden it!!!" and I'm all "It was a piece of crap!!!"

 

You have to assume that if any "failed ride" was worth resurrecting it would be resurrected. But seeing that the Flying Saucers idea, which actually lived much longer than Disneyland rides like Rocket Rods and Superstar Limo, hasn't been resurrected makes me think "Maybe it wasn't that special to begin with...."

 

Just a thought from the other side of the fence....

 

--Robb

[robbalvey]

Here's a video of it that I found. I really don't quite understand what is so amazing about this ride or why people go nuts over it, other than the fact that it's just not around anymore....

 

[VegasCoaster]

Thanks for the video Robb!

 

You can actually see the valves behind the saucers close after the saucers go over them. I do see why the ride isn't around anymore. Doesn't look that thrilling (not that Disney rides have to be or are in general) or up to Disney standards. It kind of looks like it was just plopped down and the novelty of being on a flying saucer had to carry the ride.

[robbalvey]

Yeah, the ride had like hundreds of these valves that all had to be working in order for the ride to be operational. It was closed more than it was open from what I was told.

 

--Robb

[Disney Dood]

Looks boring as hell.

[BeemerBoy]

Looks boring as hell.

I don't mean to be rude here, but stop for a second and try to wrap your brain around the time frame that the saucers were introduced. Folks, these things were groundbreaking for the early 60's! Cmon, we hadn't even stepped foot on the moon yet. This was revolutionary for theme park visitors (not to mention the infancy of the "theme park" term itself).

 

Also, I realize it's tough, given the information age in which we live, but park guests were nowhere near as informed about amusement park rides and technology as they are today. I'd imagine that the average Disneyland guest in the early 60's only had the images they saw on the Wonderful World of Disney to draw upon what they'd experience before actually visiting the park. There was no internet, no cable tv, and the world was simply much smaller than it is today.

 

If a small park somewhere on the other side of the world plans to introduce a new Dippin' Dots stand next year, I'm sure you can find out about it somewhere. That wasn't the case back then. So much of what you found at the Disney parks was completely new and inconceivable until you actually experienced it. Sure, some ideas proved to be duds, and obviously would be considered boring by today's standards. But just looking at 'em and calling them "boring as hell" undermines the significance of Disney's efforts to try new technologies that paved the way for the things we love today.

 

//Steps off soapbox.

[cfc]

This ride came up in conversation with my older brother, Ward, at WDW back in July. He remembers riding this with Mom back when it first opened, and they never could get the hang of how to make their saucer move.

 

Yeah, an interesting concept that just didn't work out.

[pgathriller]

I never said the ride would be fun. I just thought the concept was neat. I mean Topple Tower is a unique ride IMO but its such a boring ride. Although it is the same concept as bumper cars today, in the 60's it might have been amazing. I wouldn't know cuz I wasn't around in the 60's and I don't know what was amzing back then. I just think it's unique. I kind of have a fascination with old rides and how they work. You can thank the Chance Turbo for sparking my interest .

 

And thanks for the video Robb. Now I see how the ride actually worked.

[RIP Psyclone]

Now, how about that diagram?

 

An animated one like this one of the Indiana Jones Adventure at DL showing how the 3 doors work would be a bonus!

 

[Gav]

This vid has a bit of footage of the boom moving at the 28 second mark, ignore the sounds the user added though .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_XckNS8h_Q

 

Now I haven't seen the ride, but I'm guessing from the description it would be something like this. The big arm divides the floor area in half, it would sweep around to the 9 o'clock position to hold the saucers on the left hand side in the loading area while at the same time letting the saucers on the right hand side out to have fun. When the time was up for the ones on the right the arm would sweep to the 3 o'clock position.

[jray21]

Looks like we will finally get the chance to ride these. Got the picture from D23, and it's supposed to go to DCA Cars land. I agree with Robb though. Don't know how fun it will really be, especially in this day and age.

[the ghost]

The weird part is that bugs land already has bumber cars, they may be kiddie bumper cars, but still bumper cars none the less. I think this will be a good addition, I am quite a fan of the uniqueness and theming of the rides in a bugs land, and am looking forword more the seeing the concept work than the actual ride.

[jray21]

Here is the best site I found about them. They will be called Luigi's Flying Tires.

 

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