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!