Disneyland’s “Flying Saucers” 60 Years Later…

Disney has this weird history regarding flying saucer attractions because the same thing happens every single time. They just don't work. So in today's wait that no that's that's not the one those swirl they don't even fly okay sorry in today's video wait no not that one either those definitely aren't the ones those are flying tires like how did that even become a ride just no in In today's video, We're talking about the Disneyland Flying Saucers from 1961. Yes, that's the one right there. And this was actually Disney's first attempt at this Flying Saucers concept. So we're going to have to go way back. Okay, that's way too far. There we go. Okay. Opening Day Disneyland 1955. A park that featured many different lands where you could experience amazing things in the past, present, and even the future. And Tomorrowland is where guests would get a little bit of a glimpse of what the future could look like. And back in the 1950s, a lot of that future revolved around space exploration. Science fiction was also becoming very popular and the space race was about to capture the entire world's attention. And while Disney wanted Tomorrowland and to reflect and expand on that excitement. So he created multiple attractions like Rocket to the Moon, Autopia, and eventually the Disneyland Monorail, which opened in 1959. But Walt Disney was always looking for new ways to make Tomorrowland feel more like the future. And by the early 1960s, hovercraft technology was becoming a pretty big deal. Engineers were experimenting with vehicles that could float above the ground using air pressure. Disney was already interested in bringing something like this to Tomorrowland for an attraction. Also around this time, a German salesman visited Disney with a small propeller-powered hovercraft, hoping that he could convince Walt to have this become a Disneyland attraction. So Walt had Imagineer Bob Gurr test it out, but there was one pretty obvious problem. The thing had exposed high-speed spinning blades, which probably wasn't the safest idea for a theme park filled with plenty of children. And that's where Aero Development came in. Aero Development had already worked on several Disneyland attractions, Including Dumbo, the Mad Tea Party, and even the Matterhorn Bobsleds. And ironically, they had also been experimenting with hovercraft technology. Their solution was pretty simple. Instead of putting the machinery inside each little vehicle, they placed it underneath the floor of the ride, which would allow saucers to float on air without needing their own motors or propellers. So Aero Development handled the machinery, while Bob Gurr designed the saucers themselves. And after months of development and testing, the Flying Saucers officially opened at Disneyland, On August 6th of 1961, guests could finally hop into their own little UFO shaped vehicles and float around an arena bumping into each other like literal bumper cars, but more of a futuristic version. But making those saucers fly was a lot more complicated than it actually looked. The flying saucers took up around 16,000 square feet of Tomorrowland and hidden underneath the floor were four 100 horsepower motors powering giant fans, Which pushed more than 300,000 cubic feet of air per minute through thousands of small valves. Basically, whenever a saucer passed over one of those valves, it would open and release air underneath the vehicle, allowing it to hover several inches above the ground. I know, that was a lot of numbers, and it's extremely complicated, which makes this even funnier because it took all of that just to make these little bumper cars that hover just a couple inches above the ground. Now, of course, this was 1961, so it was still awesome to experience. And when guests would hop into one of their saucers, you of course had your seat, a lap belt, and then a couple of handles. Except those handles weren't actually used to steer. In fact, there actually was not a steering wheel or gas pedal at all. If you wanted to move, you literally had to lean your body in the direction that you wanted to go. It was almost like being the puck in a giant game of air hockey. The actual ride only lasted around two minutes, but unfortunately keeping these things running wasn't nearly as easy as Disney had thought. The flying saucers just had so many problems from the very beginning, some of which were before the ride even opened. You guys remember how Aero Development had been testing the technology before bringing it to Disneyland? Well, those early tests actually went very well. But when Disney built the full-sized attraction, they made one change that ended up causing a lot of trouble. The air chamber underneath the original prototype was only about 4 feet deep. At Disneyland, they made it 9 feet deep. And as it turns out, that extra space made it much harder to keep the air pressure steady. For instance, sometimes the pressure would suddenly drop and it could take a while for the system to build it back up again. Not exactly ideal for a ride that completely depends on air to keep people floating in their little saucer. But even when the machinery was working, guests had problems of their own. Because you controlled your own saucer, right? Well, that was a lot easier said than done. For smaller children, sometimes there wasn't enough weight to tilt the saucer properly. And for a ride that was mainly meant for kids, that was another huge issue. Most kids would basically just sit there, bouncing up and down, instead of getting to glide around like most adults. But kids weren't the only ones that had issues with this. Heavier guests could essentially have the opposite problem, where their saucer struggled to get off the ground at all. And since you only had about two minutes to ride, you could easily spend most of that just trying to figure out how to even move. But probably the biggest headache came from the machinery itself. Bob Gurr later recalled that the air pressure underneath the floor could sometimes drop so low that all the valves would open at once. When that happened, the system would release a massive amount of air creating a super loud noise and it would completely stop the entire experience. Like imagine riding with flying saucers for the first time and then in the first 15 seconds the ride just completely stops and you're just stuck there. And unfortunately that wasn't really an occasional issue. The flying saucers became one of Disneyland's biggest maintenance issues With technicians constantly trying to keep everything working properly. But even when the attraction was running perfectly, Disney still had another problem to deal with. It's capacity. It was horrible. Think Peter Pan's flight. Peter Pan's flight has a ridiculous wait time because it has a capacity issue. A ride that doesn't have a capacity issue? Pirates of the Caribbean. They're very good about it. This ride was more like Peter Pan. Even though the ride took up a ton of space, only 32 guests could typically ride during that two minutes at once. Because most saucers could only really hold one person, which, why did they do it that way? And eventually, all of those problems started raising a pretty obvious question. Was keeping the flying saucers around really worth it? Now, by the mid-1960s, Disney was planning some pretty big changes for Tomorrowland. The entire land was getting ready for this massive renovation, with several new attractions on the way. And considering all of the problems Disney had been dealing with with flying saucers, it was pretty obvious it just needed to go. And on September 5th of 1966, the attraction officially closed, only five years after opening. During that time, about 5 million guests got to experience it, which is kind of crazy because a lot of people probably don't even know this existed. Now, several other Tomorrowland attractions also closed around this time as Disney was preparing for this massive transformation. And when the new Tomorrowland opened in 1967, guests were introduced to attractions like the People Mover, Rocket Jets, and Carousel Progress, some absolute Tomorrowland bangers. My goodness, I love the People Mover. I love Carousel Progress. Now, none of these attractions replaced where Flying Saucers was. That area eventually became the Tomorrowland Stage, which was this little outdoor area for live performances. I could see this was definitely disappointing for some fans, but considering all of the new things Tomorrowland got, I think it worked out just fine. And for decades, it seemed like Disney was completely done with this concept. They never wanted to work with any other saucers ever again. But almost 50 years later, they decided to give it another shot. In 2012, Cars Land opened at Disney's California Adventure, which was one of the biggest expansions in the park's history. And alongside Radiator Springs Racers and Mater's Junkyard Jamboree was a little attraction called Luigi's Flying Tires. That's right, Disney had brought back the flying saucers concept, except this time the little UFOs were replaced with giant tires. And just like the original, these things also hovered. And this was 50 years later, so you would think that this technology would have advanced quite a bit and that they would have perfected this concept, right? Well, apparently not. Guests once again struggled to control their vehicles because they still had to lean to move, which is weird because 50 years ago this didn't work. So why didn't Disney come up with a different way to have guests move around? Well, they actually did. Disney had actually experimented with joystick controls during development for flying tires. But those were removed right before opening. Unfortunately, even so many years later, Disney still couldn't figure out this concept. Luigi's Flying Tires struggled to deliver the experience that Disney had hoped for. And in February 2015, less than three years after opening, even less than the Flying Saucers, Disney closed the attraction. It was then replaced in 2016 by Luigi's Rollican Roadsters, which uses a completely different ride system and is still there today. So after all of those years, Disney had essentially tried the same flying bumper car concept twice, only for both attractions to basically run into the exact same problems. So what do you guys think? Do you think Disney should give the flying saucers concept another shot maybe sometime in the future, or do you think they just need to completely scrap it and just be done with it? Let me know down in the comments, and thank you guys so much for watching. Like and subscribe for more Disney Parks content, and I'll see you guys in the next one.