Luigi’s Flying Tires is a new attraction at the Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California. It’s part of the new Cars Land area of the park. I can’t say that I’ve gone there yet, and you may ask yourself; why am I writing about it if I haven’t experienced it yet? I’m mentioning it because it has direct roots to an old Disneyland ride that I have been on many times–the Flying Saucer ride.
The now defunct Flying Saucer ride was around from 1961 to 1966 and the new Luigi’s Flying Tires ride is a reincarnated version of those saucers. The Flying Saucer ride was probably ahead of its time back in the 60′s, the ride was closed many times, due to malfunctions, no doubt. But the Flying Tires ride uses new technologies to address these problems. Read about my experience on the Flying Saucers at this link: http://yesteryearremembered.com/?p=9
To explain the history of the new ride, I will quote from a paragraph on the Disneyland Resort website:
History
“Luigi’s Flying Tires uses a completely new, state-of-the-art ride system, but the attraction is inspired by a classic Disneyland Park attraction, Flying Saucers. More than 5 million aspiring space explorers rode the Flying Saucers from August 6, 1961 to August 5, 1966. Even decades later, it’s still a favorite memory of many Disneyland Resort Guests — including Cars director John Lasseter. Now, the unique experience of floating on air can be relived and shared with a whole new generation of fans!”
Here’s some technical specs on the new ride:
- The Luigi’s Flying Tires ride covers 8,000 square feet of space
- There are 6,714 air vents (think of a gigantic air hockey table)
- 1.86 million cubic feet of air per minute is used to keep the tires afloat
- Ride capacity-600 rides per hour
- Ride length-2 minutes
- Tire size-9 foot diameter
- Height requirement-32 inches
- Vehicle capacity-2-3 riders
John Lasseter–Chief Creative Officer at Pixar & Disney Animation Studios, Test Rides The Flying Tires:
Read more about Luigi’s Flying Tires ride at the Disneyland Resort website:
http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneys-california-adventure/luigis-flying-tires/
