Space Mountain: The Truth About the Coaster of Tomorrow(land)

strap in and make sure you hear the click click click because it's all systems go on the dis Fair Space Mountain episode now there's a lot of misinformation about Space Mountain that's going to be cleared up here it's not so surprising given how Larger than Life the attraction is even the Disney Corporation themselves perpetuated certain inaccuracies back in the 70s with the passing of Walt before construction even began my guess is that they were doing the best they could but enough vagueness let's get started let's begin shall we Walt Disney himself originally came up with the idea for Space Mountain way back when in 1959 following the Monumental success of the first of all Disney mountains the Matterhorn at Disneyland Walt was actually adverse to having thrill rides like Space Mountain in his Parks until seeing the huge success of the Matterhorn he wasn't certain if they would be popular inside of a family-friendly Park once he realized that they were however his imagination took hold on a new premise Walt envisioned a new Mountain a Spaceport of some kind but whereas the Matterhorn has two tracks Walt wanted this Spaceport to have four tracks within a massive impressive building add to that he wanted it to be a dark ride with lighting effects to simulate an exciting journey through space this idea over the course of more than a decade continually refined and compromised itself into the Space Mountain we have today at the Magic Kingdom there's another in Disneyland 2 of course made two years afterward as well as others in Paris Tokyo Hong Kong all the Disney parks actually except for Shanghai but we're focusing on the first one at the Magic Kingdom Here so some five years after the public scaled the matter designs of what was under the working name Spaceport we'll begin preparations at once Jim my boy soon will be off to the Spaceport John Hench was an animator on Fantasia and Dumbo as well as an art supervisor on Alice in Wonderland Cinderella and Peter Pan so he was a great artist and animator he turned imagineer in 1954 so fairly early on considering that wet Enterprises began work only two years before he joined John Hench led the design of Disneyland's Tomorrowland and Adventureland before moving over to the Magic Kingdom to design Cinderella's castle to name only a few highlights in his awesome career so Walt figured John Hench was the guy for the Spaceport job and he was kind of wrong at least that's my opinion and suspicion Hench designed this early version of Space Mountain using the exact same cars as the Matterhorn bobsleds he also proposed having guests ride in and out of the mountain just like the Matterhorn so Hench wasn't exactly thinking outside of the box here he was just attempting to repackage an old idea that's the try anything new you'll never fail my feelings that Hench was astounding at theming a look and feel motifs if you will but he wasn't so great at contriving the intricacies of a ride or attraction again that's just my feeling not every artist animator imagineer was the whole package like a Mark Davis so Walt Disney of course stepped in to say these openings in the mountain that hence developed would not only interfere with the space premise but also ruined the star projections intended to simulate space travel in essence saying this wasn't what he wanted Walt wanted to create the first fully enclosed coaster create a new experience around this time Arrow development was brought in to take a look at engineering the coaster for the space attraction Aero development had re-engineered both Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom's carousels and engineered the Mad Tea Party The Haunted Mansion Dumbo a lot of Disney rides and they're a great company that's still around today making primarily coasters so after taking a look into configuring the four-track space attraction Mountain our development said nope it couldn't be done not the way that Walt wanted nobody nobody knew they went on to explain that a computer capable of operating such a coaster was close at hand but just not quite there yet you may be wondering how they're able to discern this rate of technological advancement the same way I did when I first heard this turns out it refers to Moore's Law which is really not an exact science but rather an estimate system stating that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit roughly doubles about every two years while the cost to produce them is cut in half a fantastic example of this is understanding that it took some 51 years to get a hard drive to hold one terabyte in 2007 and by 2009 two years later a hard drive could hold two terabytes so whether it was timing a lack of sponsorship inefficient technology of the day or John hench's not so practical ideas the project of Space Mountain was shelved I feel it's safe to assume it was likely some combination of all these reasons in the meantime the Disney World project went into operation all through the 1960s culminating to the opening of the Magic Kingdom in 1971. Waltz had tinkered with the idea of adding a Matterhorn attraction to the Magic Kingdom after its opening day but because of size restraints of the already existing map ends in pinching upon the photo opportunities of Cinderella's castle along Main Street USA the concept of another Matterhorn in the Magic Kingdom just didn't logistically work if you look at the layout of the Skyway in the Magic Kingdom though you can see round about where Walt and vision the Matterhorn would go I personally wonder if it was ever considered to actually have the Skyway load and unload passengers inside of a new Matterhorn just behind the Haunted Mansion alongside It's a Small World in Peter Pan's flight but I'm sure that too would have had its own problems but a tangled themed restroom is another approach I guess Maps indicate there's room for an attraction so I just think it's weird that such Prime real estate isn't used for a ride or shopping area such as the Beauty and the Beast Village Square there's more than enough room to also provide a restroom and place to charge your phone I don't definitely know if it was with Walt's approval before he passed away in 1966 but an area in the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland was set aside for a future Spaceport project I think it can be assumed that Walt knew about this but there's no exact proof or tale of anyone ever speaking on it that I could find all that is certain is that after the Magic Kingdom opened to the public it quickly became apparent that the park was in desperate need of a Thrill Ride but the sheer number of teens and young adults left wanting created an urgency to get it done sooner than anticipated the story you'll often hear is that as the Magic Kingdom took shape in the 70s Disney decided they needed a Thrill Ride and considered building another Matterhorn like the one in Disneyland but this isn't at all true Walt knew the park would need a Thrill Ride years before while designing the Florida project and not to be snide but the moon landing occurred three years before the opening of the Magic Kingdom it would have been silly to consider a new Matterhorn and a brand new park teaming with people who were excited about space exploration right after winning a long endured Space Race Disney had another chance to take a bite at the Matterhorn apple with the creation of the animal kingdom decades later but that's a whole other bag of Himalayan worms construction on Space Mountain was set in motion on December 15 1972. the title of lead engineer went to Bill Watkins who consequently was also in charge of its computer system Bill Watkins up to the Point had developed the People Mover in Disneyland after Space Mountain he went on to engineer the People Mover at the Magic Kingdom as well as the Big Thunder Mountain in Disneyland not long after being hired by Disney Bill Watkins here had the chance to look over the Matterhorn over in Disneyland and is quoted as saying that he was not very impressed so there were definite improvements for Space Mountain such as the use of small pipe tracks as opposed to the matterhorn's large pipe change it to a dual car system due to the advance in technology was able to use a computer to lay out the design of the track and because of the space issues that were flummoxing the previous engineered team at Aero development Watkins slashed Walt's Awesome Four Track concept down to two [Music] I hate that he did it too but when you see the layout of Tomorrowland at the time there really just wasn't enough space to get all four tracks in there if you look up the history or development of Space Mountain you are inevitably bound to hear that astronaut Gordon Cooper was recruited by imagineers to help in the ride's development a real authentic astronaut but as I scoured every Source I could find there's nothing substantive on exactly what astronaut Gordon Cooper said or added to improve upon the ride and the lack of talk especially from Bill Watkins leaves me thinking that astronaut Cooper was brought in for the publicity to say that an astronaut worked on the project and aided to simulate the feeling of actually traveling through space if Walt had been alive instead of real astronaut helped design it I would have believed it but really in spite of Cooper's aerospace engineer degree Bill Watkins really seemed to know what he was doing but who knows in any Regard in the end we all got a momentous ride worth 2 minutes and 38 seconds of twisting turning fun [Music] but there are even more alterations than I've already mentioned even by cutting the number of tracks down in half the sheer size of the undertaking was still too large for the proposed area set down in Tomorrowland the Space Mountain project was moved to its present location to give way for the structure's 300-foot circular design much to John hench's admonitions I might add but I couldn't unearth why this had bothered him so much the only thing Bill Watkins mentioned admittedly not recalling much because it took place so many decades ago was that it had something to do with the shape of the building which on its face doesn't exactly make sense because it ended up being a big cone just like hench's earlier designs while researching I did run into Space Mountain Designs being a dome by artist Clem Hall an imagineer who did incredible design work some sources claimed that this Dome concept was a consideration for the Space Mountain at the Magic Kingdom but on one of them I found a date saying it was from 1974 and the Space Mountain at the Magic Kingdom's exterior was pretty far along by March of 1974. and it seriously looks a lot like Space Mountain we have today so I'm guessing these Klim Hall designs were possibly for Disneyland Space Mountain that would be completed in 1977. the pointy spiers besides just looking cool and futuristic serve as lightning rods which I gotta say Disney imagineers are so amazing at figuring out ways to disguise lightning rods however the tallest Spire was actually designed for radio Transmissions pretty much every car vehicle at Disneyland's opening was designed by this guy and many more subsequently later I'm talking about Bob gur the bobberger who I'm so glad to finally have a video to mention him he's an astounding man I mean sure Bill Watkins was brilliant and he engineered and laid out all of Space Mountain but Bob ger made the car he's the man who called in to either figure out some mechanical engineering problem because you're stuck or to give it a serious sense of style his Forte however is vehicle body design which is exactly what he did for Space Mountain the original rocket cars each held four people for a total possibility of eight Riders as long as half the people involved didn't mind someone sitting in their lap thankfully in 1989 they redesigned the cars to each hold three people and forever since guests have been able to keep their lap and personal space to themselves these second generation cars I should add were designed by George McGinnis who was yet another remarkable imagineer too you know just not bobgar you the man who have sort of but enough about the exterior and Rocket cars now that technology and apparently caught up the Space Mountain the attraction was the very first coaster to ever have a computer control its automation which sounds pretty nifty so let me quickly explain space Mountain's computer system monitors the car speeds as well as where they are on the track the track is separated into what are pragmatically called block zones and the computer system ensures that only one car is allowed within a segmented block Zone and there's something like 15 block zones along the track the absolute max number of cars used while in operation is 13. but generally there are only 12 running on a given day back in the 70s 80s 90s and early 2000s if a car got too close to another the brake system engaged to Halt all cars along the track so you know cars didn't crash into each other a serious upgrade in 2009 adjusted this Fail-Safe system so if there's a failure depending on which block the failure occurs you may find yourself stopped somewhere on the ride just like in previous decades or find yourself at the end of a congested line at the unloading area it all depends on where the problem occurs but the point is it's a totally computerized and safe attraction as I mentioned earlier computers were also used to create the layout of the track which it would be weird for anyone today to not use a computer to create a track but again this was the first you might wonder what with all the different speeds of the cars moving along the ride how these young smartly attired cast members know just when to hit the disembark switch the fact is they don't I mean there's a minimum time they need to allow before the system allows them to move the cars forward but there's not exactly a set time to get yourself loaded in it's the initial incline area that either stops slows or speeds up cars to allow for the appropriate time needed to keep the overall system of cars functioning and spaced out smoothly [Music] the technology sounds exceedingly simple unless you think about the fact that this was cutting edge technology back in 1975. to put it in perspective the first portable computer also released in 1975. the IBM 5100 it only weighed 55 pounds Azure rocket car pulls out of the boarding area and turns a corner you're bound to have noticed that you stopped for a few seconds possibly to awkwardly stare at people still standing in the queue or politely not make eye contact or possibly wave excitedly depending on your disposition there are lots of humans on the globe we all act differently anyway this brief pause is actually to allow for the computer to roughly gauge how much you and your fellow rocketeers as it were way this weight estimate is plugged into a computer to adjust how much force is needed to periodically apply to the brakes throughout your Galactic Journey [Music] collector control also applied to the braking system particularly when an issue arises that needs to halt your car in the early years when a Fail-Safe system activated the cars were forced to such an abrupt stop that there were a number of reported injuries as mentioned earlier Space Mountain was hewned down to two tracks Alpha and Omega if you're someone who demands to get the absolute biggest bang for your buck the alpha track has all of a 10 foot longer track that's the only difference I could find one side isn't faster or offers much of a different experience than the other you may have been told by someone that they don't like riding Space Mountain because the ride is too fast for them but the truth is that the cars don't go over 28 miles per hour which is almost the speed of an average horse I get it that's pretty fast but that's also slower than a Street Legal golf cart as well as 5 miles per hour slower than the Mine Train and Thunder Mountain because this here's a wildest freeze Barnstormer out in storybook circus runs only five miles per hour slower than Space Mountain and that attraction is for three-year-olds it's the darkness of space Mountain that makes it feel like you're going so much faster the unexpected G-Force you experience from not knowing that a turn or dipping the track is coming makes it feel all the stronger the whirling stars and asteroids add to this and if you're interested in this sort of thing Bill Watkins was the first to ride Space Mountain on July 1st 1974. if you've got a Keen Eye you may have noticed that the car in the picture is double seated and from Disneyland I just uh I couldn't find one of him riding a car at the Magic Kingdom now you really can't explain the history of space Mountain's Q both entering or leaving the attraction without also discussing space Mountain's first sponsor RCA Disney convinced RCA to contribute 10 million dollars to space Mountain's Creation with its overall cost I mentioned earlier that Disney didn't quite expect to have to create a super expensive Thrill Ride so soon so they really needed help from a sponsor for their generosity the RCA logo was heavily featured outside on the signage and in the initial portion of the queue okay so RCA also installed the original computer infrastructure for Space Mountain Disney wanted to add a computer exhibit much like the one that was later added to the original imagination ride at Epcot they also wanted a fashion a walk-through multi-level home of the future akin to the one that was once at Disneyland however RCA declined to sponsor a computer exhibit along with Space Mountain which is the reason they're all those fun scenes displayed as you're leaving simply depicting a home of the future rather than walking through one seeing as how RCA wouldn't fund a full-scale model the entry queue was also much better than present day they used to be satellites and astronauts things to capture the imagination RCA's decision not to invest in the computer exhibit however did not prevent them from fashioning a special Lounge for themselves with access to the entry queue if it at all aggravates you that a computer company refused to partake in promoting its capabilities but rather invest in a soft cushy place where they could rest their behinds perhaps you'll take solace in the fact that such decision making LED them to being reacquired by GE a decade later and the RCA corporation's divisions were systematically disassembled and liquidated into Oblivion [Music] but thanks to RCA sponsorship Space Mountain was completed and opened to the public alongside the Carousel of Progress which was moved from Disneyland and revamped for the Magic Kingdom thanks to certain individuals like Mark Davis on January 15 1975. to all kinds of mid-70s fireworks and Fanfare American and Soviet astronauts attended the spectacle which given the era is more astounding than it sounds including Colonel James Irwin the pilot of the lunar module of Apollo 15 and founder of the spiritual High Flight Foundation and Moonwalker long before Michael Jackson he was a guest of honor at the opening ceremony there was also a band consisting of 2 000 band students thousands of guests a TV special hosted by Lucy Arnez and the release of 50 000 balloons if you're at all wondering about the wedway People Mover it wouldn't begin operating for another six months when you have all the details and really think about it these two attractions intercepting one another isn't at all surprising Space Mountain is predicated on Disneyland's Matterhorn foreign things about the Matterhorn when it first opened was that the Skyway gondolas ran through the mountainous attraction the wedway People Mover can be construed as a futuristic Gondola that being the case the wet way people mover runs through tomorrowland's Space Mountain just like the gondolas ran through fantasyland's Matterhorn the counterpart twin relationship between the rides one steeped in true fantasy the other in the wonders of the future each located in related parks that are separated by the span of a continent all has a sort of beauty and balance yes yes thank you for the info yes we'll ponder that for a while just stare at the sidewalk come on don't make eye contact space mountains execute deposits you into tomorrowland's light and power company which today is not anything spectacular other than a gift shop with some create your own magic bands stickers and magnets kind of cool but a pale comparison to the original arcade that used to be here in the 70s which was really neat arcades were a big thing at that time but I see why it had to be changed as far as arcades went the concept was feeling extremely dated by the 2000s I just wish it was renovated into something equally as neat like a Mars Rover attraction you could pile it via satellite remote something like that I'm just spitballing I really don't know you got NASA right down the block they could surely muster something phenomenal Walt wouldn't have let another valuable piece of real estate like this become a stomping ground for dust overpriced water bottles and Apple watch bands I know this episode may have carried a bit more angst than previous ones that's only because as great as Space Mountain is Walt's vision for it was so much greater and we all know that if you were alive to see it completed it would have been even more extraordinary to behold than it already is as far as I can tell it was the first attraction to suffer for his passing one compromise after another and yet it's a wondrous attraction that still captivates the imagination and that's because Walt ignited the idea the core concept remained true to the spirit that's why it endures there have been plenty of great rides since but this was the last one to push all of the limits of the day just like all of the projects Walt oversaw when he was alive that was his magic and that's what makes Space Mountain so special it was the last attraction with his personal touch his last gift to the guests of his parks and before I close this episode I just have to give a huge thanks to Morton Co candles their Spaceport candles seriously set the right mood for working on this episode all of their candles are great though I've purchased over 20 of them at this point and they did not pay me for this plug I just think Morton Co candles are super awesome thanks for watching and listening everyone this Bear's out [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: Disfarers

Views: 110,100

Keywords: Disney, Space Mountain, Tomorrowland, Walt Disney, Magic Kingdom, Disney World, John Hench, Disney Ride, Disfarers, Disney Space, Matterhorn, Disney Matterhorn, Disney Mountain, Disney Dark Ride, Dark Ride, Computer Roller Coaster, Disney Roller Coaster, Disney coaster, Bill Watkins, People Mover, Space Disney, Mountain Space, Tomorrowland Coaster, Tomorrowland ride, Space Mountain Facts, Tomorrowland Facts, Space Mountain History, Tomorrowland History, Dark Ride History

Id: RyIDXK1DW8E

Length: 24min 30sec (1470 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 12 2022