If You Had Wings was an attraction in Tomorrowland at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, prominently sponsored by Eastern Air Lines. Guests would ride in an Omnimover vehicle through Eastern Air Lines destinations throughout the world. The attraction ran from June 5, 1972 until June 1, 1987.
The Ride[]
After viewing a preshow about Eastern Air Lines, guests boarded their vehicles and entered past a small view of a globe with a cutaway. Then, you experienced "take-off" where your vehicle went on an inclined plane up past silhouette images of birds and other planes. The track sent people going past different 70 mm movies of different world locations Eastern flew to. Even the attractions theme song, "If You Had Wings" respectively, couldn't mask the hum of the projectors. You did get to go through a "Super-speed tunnel" at one point where different transportation modes were projected all around you. This technology wasn't flawless; the images were quite fuzzy. The technology was improved upon for the incarnations on PeopleMover and World of Motion. Once you finished seeing the "world," you were told to disembark.
New Names, New Problems[]
Eastern Air Lines ended its sponsorship in 1987. The title was changed to "If You Could Fly" and all references of Eastern were removed, from the preshow to the song. This upset many enthusiasts of the attraction at the removal of the preshow. It was replaced with images of flying birds. This version was quickly closed.
The whole ride, stages, projectors, and sets sat unused until Delta Air Lines took over sponsorship. The ride was retooled to Delta Dreamflight, one of the most remembered versions of the ride. It used most of the If You Could Fly sets, but had many overhauls in the theme and scenery. Delta ended their sponsorship in 1996, and the attraction was renamed "Disney's Take Flight!," with references to Delta removed and other tweaks throughout. It closed in 1998.
The Future[]
The attraction was replaced with Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, an arcade-style shooter themed to Toy Story. This shooter-style game is the first to utilize the experimental free-rotating Omnimover. In it, guests have the ability to move their vehicle around by turning a crank in the center of the car. The new ride still utilizes the If You Had Wings track but in a reversed fashion.
Trivia[]
- An episode of The Simpsons called "Special Edna" parodies If You Had Wings and several other attractions at an Epcot knockoff called "EFCOT Center". In it, a ride called the "FutureSphere" (whose exterior resembles Spaceship Earth) is supposed to show a world where everything is controlled by Eastern Air Lines. At the end of the episode, Homer escapes to Walt Disney World.
- Some technologies of If You Had Wings have been reused in other attractions, mainly the SuperSpeed Tunnel in World of Motion and in Disneyland's PeopleMover.
- For the Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary celebration, The Lunching Pad in Tomorrowland began serving an "If You Had Wings" chicken wing meal.
Gallery[]