Which is the real TWA Moonliner?
Feb. 21st, 2015 08:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tbutlerThis one...
...or this one?
The real answer? Neither! :)
Here's the story:
When the original Disneyland was built in California, one part of the Tomorrowland theme area was the Moonliner, as the gate guard/attraction for the Rocket to the Moon ride. Howard Hughes, then TWA's owner, sponsored the exhibit as part of his vision of TWA, airline of the future. When TWA opened its new headquarters building in Kansas City, Hughes had a smaller replica of the Disneyland Moonliner - usually referred to as Moonliner II - put on the 18th and Baltimore corner of the building. When Hughes sold TWA in the early 60s, and discontinued sponsorship of the Disneyland Moonliner, the replica was removed from the roof and sold to a trailer/RV company called SpaceCraft; it was eventually moved to Concordia, MO and mostly forgotten.
Fast-forward to the turn of the century. A Disney collector had found Moonliner II rusting by the side of the interstate, bought it, and started restoring it. Meanwhile, interest in the TWA Headquarters building - which had been left vacant and decaying for many years, after first the headquarters, and then the flight attendant academy that had taken over the building, left in 1969 - was also rising. As Moonliner II's restoration progressed, a local developer began renovating its original home, restoring the original red-and-white siding and rows of blue-green glass. The company wanted to buy Moonliner II and return it to its corner aerie, but its restorer didn't really want to sell; instead, he worked with the developer to create a new replica for the headquarters building, now called Moonliner IV. (Moonliner III is another replica built for Disneyland in the 1990s, after the original had been taken down in the late 60s Tomorrowland redesign.)
In 2009, I worked in the restored headquarters building for six months on a contract programming job for Barkley, the advertising firm that moved in after the renovation was completed. They did a really, really nice job on the building; putting a restoration of the iconic rocket in its original home is typical of the attention to detail that they showed.
So to get back to our original question... neither of these is the original TWA Moonliner; that was lost somewhere in the Disneyland warehouses. But Moonliner II and Moonliner IV are still around, to remind us of what once was!
In addition to the Wikipedia article, there's a great version of the story at Yesterland.
(Breech Academy is an interesting story in and of itself; I remember Dad driving us by it not too long after we moved to KC in 1977, and it stayed open for 11 years after that. It was regarded as the best flight attendant school in the nation, and other airlines would send people there for training.)
...or this one?
The real answer? Neither! :)
Here's the story:
When the original Disneyland was built in California, one part of the Tomorrowland theme area was the Moonliner, as the gate guard/attraction for the Rocket to the Moon ride. Howard Hughes, then TWA's owner, sponsored the exhibit as part of his vision of TWA, airline of the future. When TWA opened its new headquarters building in Kansas City, Hughes had a smaller replica of the Disneyland Moonliner - usually referred to as Moonliner II - put on the 18th and Baltimore corner of the building. When Hughes sold TWA in the early 60s, and discontinued sponsorship of the Disneyland Moonliner, the replica was removed from the roof and sold to a trailer/RV company called SpaceCraft; it was eventually moved to Concordia, MO and mostly forgotten.
Fast-forward to the turn of the century. A Disney collector had found Moonliner II rusting by the side of the interstate, bought it, and started restoring it. Meanwhile, interest in the TWA Headquarters building - which had been left vacant and decaying for many years, after first the headquarters, and then the flight attendant academy that had taken over the building, left in 1969 - was also rising. As Moonliner II's restoration progressed, a local developer began renovating its original home, restoring the original red-and-white siding and rows of blue-green glass. The company wanted to buy Moonliner II and return it to its corner aerie, but its restorer didn't really want to sell; instead, he worked with the developer to create a new replica for the headquarters building, now called Moonliner IV. (Moonliner III is another replica built for Disneyland in the 1990s, after the original had been taken down in the late 60s Tomorrowland redesign.)
In 2009, I worked in the restored headquarters building for six months on a contract programming job for Barkley, the advertising firm that moved in after the renovation was completed. They did a really, really nice job on the building; putting a restoration of the iconic rocket in its original home is typical of the attention to detail that they showed.
So to get back to our original question... neither of these is the original TWA Moonliner; that was lost somewhere in the Disneyland warehouses. But Moonliner II and Moonliner IV are still around, to remind us of what once was!
In addition to the Wikipedia article, there's a great version of the story at Yesterland.
(Breech Academy is an interesting story in and of itself; I remember Dad driving us by it not too long after we moved to KC in 1977, and it stayed open for 11 years after that. It was regarded as the best flight attendant school in the nation, and other airlines would send people there for training.)
no subject
Date: 2015-02-22 03:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-22 03:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-02-22 03:30 am (UTC)I didn't realize they used to be trained medical personnel. My dad's a surgeon and remembers having done surgery on flights when they called for any surgeons on board, but I would imagine that requiring all flight attendants to also be surgeons would be a bit much.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-22 04:15 am (UTC)