TWA Moonliner
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From 1955 through 1962, the TWA Moonliner was part of the first futuristic exhibit located in
Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...
's
Tomorrowland Tomorrowland is one of the many themed lands featured at all of the Magic Kingdom styled Disney theme parks around the world owned or licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Each version of the land is different and features numerous attractions t ...
. It was also an early example of modern
product placement Product placement, also known as embedded marketing, is a marketing technique where references to specific brands or products are incorporated into another work, such as a film or television program, with specific promotional intent. Much of th ...
advertising by
TWA Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with ...
's
Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...
teaming up with
Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
as the Moonliner's sponsor. At tall, it was the tallest structure in the theme park, taller than the
Sleeping Beauty Castle Sleeping Beauty Castle is a fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic ...
. Adjoining the rocket was the "Flight to the Moon" attraction, which later became "Mission To Mars" in 1975. The Moonliner was designed by
John Hench John Hench (June 29, 1908 – February 5, 2004) was an American artist, designer and director at The Walt Disney Company. For 65 years, he helped design and develop various Disney attractions and theme parks. Early life Hench was born on June 2 ...
, one of the original Disney
Imagineers Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc., commonly referred to as Imagineering, is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construction of Disney Parks, Experiences an ...
, with the help of German rocket scientist
Wernher von Braun Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...
. It resembled von Braun's
V-2 The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...
rocket design but depicted what a commercial spaceliner might look like for traveling to
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in the faraway year of 1986. The Moonliner's retracting landing leg covers were said to resemble the fuselage shape on TWA's elegant
Lockheed Constellation The Lockheed Constellation ("Connie") is a propeller-driven, four-engined airliner built by Lockheed Corporation starting in 1943. The Constellation series was the first pressurized-cabin civil airliner series to go into widespread use. Its press ...
airliner; the rocket also featured portholes, a raised cockpit area, and a boarding ramp. A real Moonliner was envisioned to be powered by a nuclear reactor and actually be more than tall; the theme park's Moonliner was roughly a one-third scale model. After Hughes sold his interest in TWA, the airline dropped their corporate sponsorship; the rocket then became the Douglas Moonliner when the
Douglas Aircraft Company The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer based in Southern California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas; it then operated as ...
became its sponsor. This new Moonliner looked the same as the original, but the famous all-red TWA logo and stripes on the nose and landing legs were gone, replaced by a brand new paint scheme of overall white with blue stripes and a red, vertically stacked Douglas logo running down the rocket's fuselage. The Douglas Moonliner stayed at the theme park for five more years, until 1967, when it was removed for a redesigned, New
Tomorrowland Tomorrowland is one of the many themed lands featured at all of the Magic Kingdom styled Disney theme parks around the world owned or licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Each version of the land is different and features numerous attractions t ...
, making way for the
Carousel of Progress Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress is a rotating theater audio-animatronic stage show attraction in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida just outside of Orlando, Florida. Created ...
and other attractions. Its fuselage was moved to a storage "boneyard" area at the northwest corner of the property and was seen there as late as 1981.


TWA Moonliner II

In 1956 Hughes added a version of the Disneyland Moonliner, known as the TWA Moonliner II, atop the southwest corner of the
TWA Corporate Headquarters' Building The TWA Corporate Headquarters Building, located at 1735 Baltimore Avenue in the Crossroads neighborhood of downtown Kansas City, was Trans World Airlines headquarters until 1964, when the airline moved to New York City. The selection of Kansas ...
, located at 18th Street and Baltimore, near downtown
Kansas City, MO Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...
. When Hughes and Disney ended their business partnership in 1961 after Hughes sold TWA, the airline's management removed the Moonliner II from its roof and sold it in 1962 to a local RV company called SpaceCraft. SpaceCraft moved the now all-white Moonliner in 1970 to Concordia, MO, where it landed near the south side of Interstate 70, between Kansas City and
St. Louis, MO St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which ...
, where SpaceCraft operated its assembly plant; it slowly rusted on that spot for more than 25 years. In 1997 a
Columbia, MO Columbia is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is the county seat of Boone County and home to the University of Missouri. Founded in 1821, it is the principal city of the five-county Columbia metropolitan area. It is Missouri's fourth ...
lawyer, who collected Disney memorabilia, bought the deteriorating Moonliner II and then began a long, careful restoration process, eventually bringing it back to its 1956 condition and sporting its original red and white TWA paint scheme. The rocket is currently on loan to the
National Airline History Museum The National Airline History Museum is an aviation museum located at the Kansas City Downtown Airport in Kansas City, Missouri focused on the history of airlines in the United States. History Founded in 1986 by aviation enthusiasts Larry A. ...
at the
Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport is a city-owned, public-use airport serving Kansas City, Missouri. Located in Clay County, this facility is included in the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems, which categorized it as a general aviat ...
, in Kansas City, MO, where it stands very near an original, fully restored to flight status, TWA Super "G" Constellation airliner; the Moonliner II is located about five miles from its original TWA rooftop location.


Moonliner III

In 1998 a new but scaled-down version of the park's original Moonliner was added as part of the New Tomorrowland, complete with the familiar red stripes of the now defunct TWA. Today, this one-third smaller Moonliner is used to promote
Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...
"Delivering Refreshment to a Thirsty Galaxy"; it sits next to the building that once housed the "Flight to the Moon" attraction, which is now Redd Rockett's Pizza Port.


Moonliner IV (Moonliner II replica)

In early 2005, the Nicholson Group, a Kansas City, Missouri urban development firm, hired local architectural firm, el dorado inc, to design and oversee the historic restoration of the TWA corporate headquarters building, complete with a replica Moonliner II. The Bratton Corporation was contracted in early 2006 to fabricate a brand new TWA Moonliner II replica for the building's roof. This new, fully illuminated rocket was completed and then installed on September 29 of that year at the very same southwest corner roof location as the original Moonliner II. The TWA building was then leased to Kansas City-based advertising agency Barkley, Inc., and the agency moved in on November 14, 2006. The area surrounding the TWA building is known as Kansas City's
Crossroads Arts District Crossroads, crossroad, cross road or similar may refer to: * Crossroads (junction), where four roads meet Film and television Films * ''Crossroads'' (1928 film), a 1928 Japanese film by Teinosuke Kinugasa * ''Cross Roads'' (film), a 1930 Brit ...
.


References

* Barton, Eric. "Incoming: A Rocket That Once Graced TWA's Office Heads Back To Its Spot Over Downtown." ''The Pitch'' weekly entertainment journal, August 17, 2006 issue, Kansas City, Missouri. No ISSN. * Coville, Gary and Lucinao, Patrick. "Science Faction: The Politics of Tomorrowland". ''Outre, Entertainment from the World of UlraMedia'' #2 and #3, Spring and Summer issues, 1995, Evanston, IL. * Extinct Attractions Club, ''Rocket to the Moon''. DVD featuring original film and video documentaries covering Disneyland's TWA Moonliner and the theme park rides for the original "Rocket to the Moon" and later "Mission to Mars" attractions. * Haggerty, Jack, "The YABAR Chronicles (Yet Another Born Again Rocketeer)", ''Sport Rocketry'' magazine, July/August, 1996. No ISSN. (Five-page article and Haggerty interview about Disney's 1955 Tomorrowland and TWA Moonliner attractions.) * Janzen, Jack E., and Janzen, Leon J. "Disneyland's Rocket to the Moon," ''The "E" Ticket'' magazine #24, Summer issue, 1996, Santa Clara, CA. No ISSN. (14-page authoritative TWA Moonliner article.)


External links

{{commons category
Lunar.org history





Aviation History Museum - Kansas City, Missouri Downtown Airport
Buildings and structures in Kansas City, Missouri Former Walt Disney Parks and Resorts attractions Disneyland Novelty buildings in the United States Trans World Airlines
Buildings and structures in Missouri {{Commons category, Buildings in Missouri Missouri Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the nor ...