Astro Jets are Go! July 1961
No amusement park would be complete without at least a few rides that spin you around and maybe, just maybe, make you barf. Tomorrowland's Astro Jets fit the bill back in the 50's and 60's.
The design of this simple ride had a lot of 50's charm. Those stubby little rockets with the stabelizer fins, bright red and blue paint scheme (and that checkerboard center column), and the single headlight all helped to make it look like an oversized toy. In this photo you can see the Skyway, and TWO Monorails as well.
The photographer panned just a bit to the left, and the view isn't that different. But we can see the little ticket booth, with some poor guy being slowly broiled in his greenhouse. I can only assume that these booths weren't air conditioned, and on a July day they must have been uncomfortable to say the least!
5 comments:
Fantastic shots; love the fact that so many attractions are visible all at once.
The booth is actually the control booth for the ride. The slides are great as few people took images of such a "mundane" ride, most wanted pictures of the TWA Rocket, Monorail or the Submarines.
WOW, great shots! I just had it confirmed the Astro-Jet mechanism is the same one still up on there at Disneyland! It's that silly satellite thing now, but it was the Rocket Jets & the Astro-Jets. It was Walt’s Idea to just move it up there! How easy would that be to make it a ride again? These are super neat, thanks!
As I recall, the bearing mechanism was from a WWII Panzerkampfwagen (panther tank). I wonder if the same one is still up there?
Hi Major, The Viewliner Limited is back on track and will start posting tomorrow. I have gone through all your posts that I have truly missed for the last couple of weeks and as always they are excellent. Glad to be back. Richard.
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