Mickey in Tomorrowland!!!

In honor of the theatrical release of Disney's newest movie Tomorrowland (which I have yet to see) I present one of my few Tomorrowland items! I give you, the Tomorrowland Mickey Rocket Cup!!! (add stirring music of your choice at this point)

Ok, maybe it's not quite worth a huge build up, but it's still pretty cool. The cup stands about 8 inches tall and, I assume came from Walt Disney World in the '70s or '80s. I'm basing that guess on the fact that the other items I picked up with it were from there and about that time. The cup is made of super dense styrofoam with heavy plastic fins, handle, and top.
You don't see too many of them around, and there is another version (with blue fins and top, a red handle and a picture of Mickey apparently walking on the moon ) that is more common.

And yes, I'm pretty sure it could be converted to fly.

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

The Pre-Moonliner

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you might have figured out that in addition to rockets, I love me some Disney! I have a special affinity for the TWA Moonliner, which graced Tomorrowland from 1955 until 1965. The Moonliner was designed by Disney legend John Hench, with help from Dr. Werner Van Braun. However, the sleek red and white rocket that eventually stood in from of Flight to the Moon wasn't the only design considered.

As I showed in an entry a couple of weeks ago, a tray showing a map of Disneylsnd released before the park was built shows a skinny pencil-like ship. However when I was looking through my Disney stash, I found yet another pre-Moonliner design. I found this:

The fly page explains when this book was published:

Yep, the text clearly says that Disneyland has yet to open. Although it carries a copyright of 1955 (which is the year the park began) it is important to note that Disneyland actually opened in July. This book was probably actually written in 1954 and published early in '55. Therefore, the writers probably didn't actually know much about the future park, apart what had been shown on the Disneyland tv show.

Still, they had some apects of the design down well. Take a look at the riverboat and the Main Street buildings. They look very close to what actually appeared in the park. The castle may be a bit large and imposing, but it's close. But what about that rocket? Wow, not even in the ball park.

Whereas the Moonliner has no fins at all, this beast sports at least eight. (there may be more, it is hard to tell). There is no white and red paint scheme. This monster stands all in silver. What gives?

Well, there's really no mystery here. This rocket is the rocket that blasted off every week at the beginning of the tv show. It was based on this:

Yes, that's Dr. Von Braun himself, as seen on a Tomorrowland episode of Disneyland. He is standing by his ferry rocket, which (as you can probably tell by his very serious face) was an actual prototype space vehicle. So that image was used in the book. Here's another look at it:

However, John Hench (remember him?) wanted a sleeker more modern ship for the park. He probably consulted Von Braun before he clipped the rocket's fins, but maybe not. TWA had just signed on to sponsor the attraction, so Hench "borrowed" design elements from the Super Constellation aircraft that was the pride of the airline. One element was the paint scheme, but others included the landing gear and port holes. The Moonliner was one of the last things added to the park, since it was being redesigned almost up until opening day. Therefore, instead of Von Braun's prototype, we got this:

So there you have it! The Moonliner that almost was. You can't fault the Golden Book artists, since they were just using what they had. You can fault the writers, though, that wrote a whole book suprisingly devoid of any of Disneyland's "delights." Oh well, you can't win 'em all...

Until next time fly 'em fast and high!

Pens In Space!!!

This week its time to delve back into my bag of items I got at the Apollo 7 Celebration a few years back. So, let's take a look at a rather special pen...

This is the Fisher Space Pen. The Fisher pen was adopted by NASA because it could write in micro gravity due to its pressurized cartridge. This particular space pen was released in honor of Apollo 11. It features beautiful etching that is more or less impossible to photograph. It says, "Apollo 11, Neil A. Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins." It features pictures of Armstrong planting the American flag on the moon surface, The service module, and a full Saturn V stack. It also says, "This AG7 Model Pen Was Used As A Tool To Save The Apollo 11 Man's first landing on the moon July 20th, 1969." And herein the plot thickens...

The instance the text refers to is undoubtedly the story about how after the Eagle module had landed on the moon and it was time to leave, Buzz Aldrin noticed that the relay to fire the main engines had been broken off. In order to fire the engine and return to earth, Aldrin shoved a pen into the relay. The trick worked and all was saved. The Fisher pen company began circulating the story about how the Space Pen had saved the mission, and they made tons of money. The only person that was silent about the story was Buzz.

Years went by and Aldrin released his memoirs. In them, we find out why he was strangely silent about the pen story. It wasn't exactly true. He did, in fact, use a pen trigger the relay, but it wasn't a Fisher Space Pen. It was a plastic felt tip marker. He was afraid the metal casing on the space pen would short out the relay.

So why did he not say anything for all of those years? I personally think because he is a very nice guy. (I've met him and talked with him and he certainly seems to be!) He saw that Fisher had a lot to gain from the story, and he had nothing to gain from clearing it up, so he just let it go. Also, it could be argued that by providing an excellent writing instrument for the Apollo program, Fisher actually did save it....just not in as dramatic a way.

So there you have it. Some legends are 100% true and some, not so much....But either way, its a beautiful pen and a piece of space history!

Until next time fly 'em fast and high!

May the 4th Be With You!

In celebration of Star Wars Day, I bring you my little buddy, R2D2!

R2D2 was produced by Estes as a flying model rocket in 1978. He might not be as cool as an X-Wing, but he has his own special charm. He actually flies better than you would think, thanks to those clear plastic fins. It is a bit unnerving to see his head fly off to deploy the chute, but its all in good fun!
Mine has never actually flown. At first I put it off because I put a lot of work into the paint job...and then before I knew it, it was a classic! Now he just sits on my bookcase. I'm tempted from time to time, but I just can't do it....Maybe NEXT May the 4th...