Revealed: Characters in Flight first draft used catapult - Uncle Walt's Insider

Revealed: Characters in Flight first draft used catapult

News Brief: early Characters in Flight design.

Admit it: this would have been a lot more fun.

WALT DISNEY WORLD, FL — “Characters in Flight,” the popular Disney Springs attraction that takes guests 14,500 feet in the air while strapped to the underside of a giant, colorful hydrogen balloon, looked very different during its planning stages. Internal documents from Aerophile S.A., the French company which designed and built the attraction, have been uncovered by Uncle Walt’s Insider, and show that the early drafts of the ride featured a trebuchet which would fling guests into the air. The plan at the time was apparently to launch guests in a graceful arc and allow them to splash down in the lake, to be picked up by a boat and returned to shore.

The company apparently changed the plans to a gentle balloon ride after company lawyers expressed concern about liability for injuries, especially upon learning that Disney planned to charge extra for life vests and crash helmets.

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