Luna Park Co., via Heartofconeyisland.com
Throughout the history of flight, engineers have tried to recreate realistic flight in order to train pilots safely, on the ground, before getting into the cockpit of a real aircraft. However, the applications of flight simulators are not limited to pilot training—before the invention of the airplane, man wanted to fly, even if it was just an illusion. Two men achieved this feat, but they were not of the Disney family, nor anyone in the modern era. To learn about the history of simulated flight for amusement, we have to go back to the 1901 World’s Fair in Buffalo, New York.
In 1865, the prolific writer Jules Vernes wrote his novel, From the Earth to The Moon, which detailed a flight to the moon via a capsule fired from a gigantic cannon. We fast forward to 1901, and now are introduced to Mr. Thompson and Mr. Dundy. Frederic Thompson was an amusement designer, known for his complete disregard for budgeting, and Elmer “Skip” Dundy, known for his financial prudence and legal genius. Leading up to the 1901 World's Fair in Buffalo, New York, Thompson noticed that Dundy submitted one of his own attractions as a concession, which Dundy pointed out that Thompson had failed to copyright. Rather than hold a grudge, Thompson offered a deal to Dundy—Thompson would design a new, far superior attraction than the one Dundy was copying, and they would be equal partners—Dundy agreed.
A Trip to The Moon was the first simulator attraction ever created for use in a public setting. Powered by electricity, it simulated a trip to the moon and back, based on Jules Vernes’ novel. Per Heart of Coney Island (a history site dedicated to the entire history of the peninsula), this was the experience: “Passengers entered a spaceship called the Airship Luna, appropriately named as luna means moon in Spanish. They fastened their seatbelts, and rode the Airship Luna all the way to the moon, where they landed with a thump. Complete with simulated rocking motions, sound effects and changing backdrop scenery that gradually showed the Earth getting smaller through the plane's windows and asteroids whizzing by, the ride was exceptionally realistic. Once on the moon, the ship's pilot invited the passengers to walk around the Mars-like terrain and scenery. For good measure, oddly-dressed midgets as well as a giant were cast as moon people. Passengers then returned to the ship and made their way back to Earth.”
A Trip to The Moon, was essentially a theatre with slight movement and vibration mechanics, simulating the thrill of space-travel. The attraction was a smash hit, and was later exported to Dundy and Thompson’s Luna Park, at Coney Island, New York City (which you can read more about in my History of Theme Parks article). After this attraction, there was not much development in amusement park simulators, due to the industry’s new focus on roller coasters, and later going into a giant slump thanks to the Great Depression. However, developments in aircraft simulators paved the way for the next generation of amusement simulators.
In 1910, the first aircraft simulator appeared, the Sanders Teacher. Guided by the wind, it was a lightweight aircraft composed of Sanders biplane components, hence the name, two halves of a barrel, and a universal joint that allowed the simulator to be pointed into the wind, allowing the craft to be guided by the wind. Ailerons and rubber pedals were used to control position and altitude by the pilot. The upper half of the barrel represented a swinging cockpit and the lower half was part of the base. The pilot sat in the upper half of the barrel, the cockpit was moved manually (by a person on the ground), and the cockpit had to align with a reference bar to the horizon. Unfortunately, because this device was not reliable since it relied on the wind being present and was mechanically unreliable.
During the First World War, the use of aircraft in war demanded rapid training turnover, so efforts to design more simulators were undertaken, particularly by France and Italy. The Lender and Heidelberg devices from 1917 used mechanical or electrical actuators that could be operated by the simulators’ controls, which could tilt the aircraft’s fuselage. Furthermore, the instructors could now use the simulators to simulate turbulence—just like A Trip to The Moon from 16 years before. The largest breakthrough came in the form of the Link trainer—the standard simulator through the 1930s and 40s, thanks to its fully automatic controls using pneumatic bellows that could control pitch and roll. Turbulence could be simulated by means of perforated tape.
After the Second World War, simulators began to move away from simulated movement, and more towards learning how to use instrumentation. Thanks to newly created analogue (and later digital computers) in the 1950s, simulators could now calculate the predicted motions of an aircraft and simulate its behavior under various aerodynamic forces.
Around the same time, Disneyland opened to great fanfare on July 17th, 1955, with a “motionless” simulator called Rocket to The Moon, that simulated a trip to the moon on the Moonliner—proudly sponsored by Trans World Airlines.
According to Yesterland’s Werner Weiss, “Your Rocket to the Moon simulation takes place in one of two identical dome-shaped “passenger chamber” theaters. Take a seat in one of the three tiered rows surrounding the screen in concentric circles. There’s a round projection screen in the center of the floor, another on the ceiling. The floor screen will show you where you’ve been, while the ceiling screen will show you where you’re going—almost as if they were windows. As you lift off, look at the floor screen.
You’re high above the launch pad, then high above Anaheim, and soon high above the Earth. As you leave the Earth’s atmosphere, the blue sky changes to the blackness of outer space. The Moon grows larger on the ceiling screen as the Earth gets smaller on the floor screen. You don’t actually land on the Moon, but you get to fly around the back side of the Moon. Along the way, you learn interesting facts about the Moon and the planets. Soon you’re heading back to Earth. After your craft turns around, you see your destination on the floor screen. Prepare to land.” Eventually, the last iteration of Rocket to the Moon (Rocket to Mars) was closed in 1992 to make way for a pizza joint.
Upon the introduction of the Boeing 747 and the creation of NASA’s lunar landing program (both in the 1960s), a need for simulators with both instrumentation and movement was created. Digital computers, introduced in the 1960s, could now handle the increasing technical demands of flight simulators, including computer generated imagery (CGI), programming instrumentation, and joints responding to a pilot’s commands—all at the same time. This trend of increased digitization and full movement continued through the 60s and 70s, but the application of flight simulators was mostly the same—pilot training. However, in the mid-1980s, British company Rediffusion had an idea that their technology could also be used in the leisure business as well.
In 1984, Michael Eisner was installed as the President of Walt Disney Productions, and one of his first major moves was to bring an attraction to Disneyland themed to George Lucas’ Star Wars. Originally, the Imagineers (the designers responsible for designing all of the attractions in Disney parks worldwide) conceived a roller coaster with two tracks, one for the light side and one for the dark side, and you could choose either side. Unfortunately, this attraction was so big, one would need a show building the size of Angels Stadium. However, some Imagineers had just come back from Britain after seeing Rediffusion’s ATLAS simulator, which led to Disney choosing this system as their ride system for Star Tours, the first ever modern simulator attraction, that took guests on a flight to Endor—but not before going through asteroid fields, an actual asteroid, and a battle between the Rebellion and the Empire, culminating in blowing up yet another Death Star (die-hard Star Wars fans please relax—none of the ride is canon). Star Tours opened on January 9th, 1987, with four ATLAS simulators, and was so popular that lines for it stretched from Tomorrowland all the way down to Main Street, USA. The park was kept open for three days straight to manage the demand, as guests determinedly waited in a multi hour line just to enter the ride building.
Innovation in theme park simulators only accelerated in the coming years, with Disney opening the Indiana Jones Adventure attraction at Disneyland Park, whose ride system is a car with a motion simulator base, simulating the rough sensation of going off-roading. Later on, Universal parks opened their second park in Florida, Islands of Adventure, with The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man—yet another simulator base-dark ride attraction. However, unlike Indiana Jones, Spider-Man was the first attraction to somewhat “marry” a flight simulator to a motion base dark ride. Spider-Man has a motion base, but also can go into giant rooms facing large screens where guests can watch epic battle scenes play out in front of their eyes, with the motion base reacting to what is displayed on the screen.
The latest development in the world of theme park simulators, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers’ Run, at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland Park and Disney’s Hollywood Studios represents the next phase of what theme park simulators will be, and where the theme park industry is going. Created to simulate the experience of flying Han Solo’s famed hunk of junk, Disney Imagineering had to solve many problems, including being able to render high quality graphics at a high frame rate in real time and being able to accommodate a guest throughput of at least 2000 people per hour. The first issue was solved by working with game developer Epic Games (maker of the hit game, Fortnite) by using their game engine Unreal Engine 4, and pairing it with Industrial Light and Magic’s visual environments created for this attraction. The second issue of capacity was solved by having two turntables fitted with six cockpits each, allowing guests to have their very own adventure. The experience takes you on a smuggling run to the industrial planet of Corelia to steal ship fuel from the First Order, allowing guests to pilot the Millenium Falcon, fire at TIE fighters, and repair the damage the pilots and TIEs have done to the ship. At the end of the ride, you return to the base, and Hondo Ohnaka (a Clone Wars character who has the Millenium Falcon on loan from Chewbacca) takes his cut for profit and damages—sometimes guests could end up “in debt” to Ohnaka as well.
The history of amusement park simulators and simulators for military applications is heavily intertwined, but over the past couple decades, they have more distinct, thanks to the creation of simulators just for amusement, like the ATLAS simulator from the 1980s. To this day, simulators remain an important part of the flight training process—and the theme park guest’s experience, giving guests the chance to experience thrilling experiences they would normally never get to—with little to no risk.
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