Just one slightly-crooked picture for today, but that's for good reason, as today is the exact 50th anniversary of the landing of men on the moon. To celebrate this occasion with some amusement park fun, I thought I'd show the "Sky Slide" at Knoebels, a simple attraction with some surprising history.
About 50 years ago - at the peak of interest in space exploration - Knoebels was home to a rocket simulator ride. However, the interest in this attraction eventually wanted, so when it had ran its course, the park simply turned it on its end and turned it into a slide! It's a cool example of space-age optimism that found a second life.
Here's to the future of space exploration!
10 comments:
The photo is balanced by the tree trunk leaning in the other direction of the "Sky Slide". Cool looking structure. It has those Christmas color vibes. Thanks, Andrew.
Forgot to say that I like the space-age history of it. It took me a while, but I finally saw the rocket ship within the slide.
Yeah, it can be difficult to discern without seeing the "peak" at the top of the ship.
Thanks for the compliments and for reading!
The moon belongs to everyone,
The best things in life are free...
So the original simulator ride had riders seated inside that structure/rocket? Was there a movie shown in front of the riders to simulate space travel?
Indeed...
Yes. This used to be a fairly standard ride across a lot of parks, but only a few are left. One of these remaining examples is at Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, PA. The film is likely similar to the one that used to be here. Take a lookHERE
Andrew, it's great to see that younger people, who never saw men walk on the Moon, still remember and continue to be inspired by it. Oh, my...I sound like an old-timer...
The reuse of that simulator is awesome. Thanks for sharing...and remembering with the rest of us.
A-ha! So Star Tours wasn't the first! Thanks for that link, Andrew!
Don't worry.... it's definitely inspiring to every generation. The Pittsburgh History Center recently had a really cool and expansive exhibit that included the actual Command Module from Apollo 11.
I appreciate the support, and thanks for reading!
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