Discover LucasPort, the Other Disneyland "Star Wars Land" Project That You've Never Heard About !

In three days from now Galaxy's Edge Rise of the Resistance, the most awaited ride of the year, will open at WDW Disney's Hollywood Studios, bringing a final grand opening to this Star Wars land. But what you most probably don't know is that more than 30 years ago WDI Imagineers envisioned another kind of "Star Wars land". It would have been called "LucasPort" - of course in tribute to Georges Lucas - and D&M unveil the project and tell you all about it thanks to great artworks which will be on sale on Dec 7 in the Van Eaton Galleries auction, see the auction catalog HERE.

This “LucasPort” project was a project that WDI Imagineer Tony Baxter and his team of Imagineers were developing for Disneyland's Tomorrowland. This was before WDI hit upon using a simulator for Star Tours. The LucasPort project was designed as a Tomorrowland update or replacement, and there was a lot of discussion on the name LucasPort vs the more generic “VenturePort.

Above and below: Disneyland LucasPort crystal shape building. Disneyland People Mover and Monorail would have gone through or around it.



The crystal centerpiece you can see on the rendering would have replaced Disneyland's Carousel of Progress / Innoventions building. Inside LucasPort guests would have chosen different paths leading to the attractions.







Among the attractions to be included in this LucasPort were an amazing Star Wars roller coaster - more about it in a minute - but also Alien Encounter, which was originally designed for Disneyland! Alien Encounter was created for this LucasPort project, and the lead designer was Imagineer Gill Kepler. Disneyland Rocket Jets would be relocated inside the crystal LucasPort building.


Disneyland guests would have met their favorite Star Wars characters.

Two blueprints of LucasPort. The crystal building is at the center, and note behind it and on the right the show buildings circled in yellow, red and blue that would have host the attractions.





A cross section view of LucasPort crystal show building, with its different levels.



The model of LucasPort, with LucasPort show building on the top center, Space Mountain on the right, Tomorrowland entrance on the bottom and Autopia and the Submarine rides on the left.



Others model pictures shows that a new and more futuristic load building would have been built for Disneyland's Submarine ride. Also note the Monorail coming in and out of the main show building.







Two more pictures of the model showing the crystal shape show building. Note the “VenturePort” sign at the entrance.





LucasPort would also include an incredible Star Wars themed roller coaster, which was the big attraction... but too big! The design of the coaster included a launch from Dagobah in a scene featuring Yoda and Obi Wan Kenobi. The coaster train was dispatched from a huge "swamp like” room that was in fact an elevator - like Haunted Mansion ) and Yoda and the complete Dagobah swamp set was lowered to make it appear that "the force was strong" with the guests as the rocket sled appeared to levitate high above the swamp.



The coaster had 3 guests choice points where you could choose to dog fight or flee ( a coaster ride with loops or a smooth flight ). Below, the rocket of the LucasPort Star Wars coaster ready to be launched in a galaxy far far away.



During their ride in the Star Wars roller coaster rocket, guests would have gone through Dagobah, encounter Stormtroopers, circled AT&T Walkers, face a fight between Darth Vader and a Jedi ( or may be the Emperor ), go though meteorites, get close to the Death Star and even escape its explosion!
















Unfortunately this branching ride ate up tons of space and the project proved impractical when WDI Imagineers saw how big a structure would be needed to house 6 track segments that went their separate ways, then had to reconverge. Also, the decision points required too much guest interface time and immediate computation had to be safe and practical, a difficult problem to solve back in that time. Star Tours solved that dilemma and fit nicely into the former Adventure Through Inner Space building.

When the concept grew beyond the scope of Tomorrowland, it was proposed as part of a large second gate project using the more generic “VenturePort” theme. Lucas projects would become a land of VenturePort along with a Figment and Dreamfinder Imagination land, a Jules Verne area, Indiana Jones Adventures and a Future Technology area. VenturePort was a theme park with the crystal VenturePort structure being the portal to the various lands, including the Star Wars area. Imagineers John Stone and Sam McKim worked on many of those concept paintings. The unique aspects of the Ventureport concept was that the attractions were accessed via the large crystal centerpiece, like an airport. The attractions might have been behind a berm or actually on land blocks away, with a transport system used to get there.

The LucasPort concept was not ever a part of the WESTCOT project. It was a part of the VenturePort theme park concept, which was a different one that we may talk about someday. WESTCOT was like EPCOT with highly themed living experiences added to each of “The Four Corners of the World” so you could live a life you couldn't find anywhere else ...as per Walt's original EPCOT wishes.

VenturePort and WESTCOT were two different projects. Although the name “VenturePort" was such a great word that Imagineers considered naming WESTCOT Future World attraction building "Ventureport” - but that had nothing to do with the other theme park concept titled Ventureport. ( VenturePort did become the name of the center area in Disney Quest ).

Pictures: copyright Disney

All about the Incredible Star Wars "Warring Coaster" Patent

Two days ago wdidreamer, a member of WDWMagic.com forum, posted the pictures above and below from a U.S. patent supposedly filed by WDI last year. The title of his thread was "After Star Tours....is this what's next?" and almost instantly members of WDWMagic forum were amazed by what looks like an incredible Star Wars dueling roller coaster concept.

There was just a little problem: this patent filed last year is NOT a WDI patent! So, if this amazing concept was not designed by WDI Imagineers, who did it? A closer look at the patent reveals that it was filed by someone named Jonathan Gordon. And, yes, if you call WDI switch board they will confirm that there is no Jonathan Gordon working at Imagineering, so it's definitely not a WDI patent. I really wanted to know more about this mysterious and exciting Star Wars concept and I finally found the web site of Jonathan Gordon – www.gordonrides.com – a company that "offers new and innovative amusement rides and attractions for customers that demand the latest and greatest". Their rides are based on proprietary designs that they develop in-house. They work "with the finest engineering and manufacturing firms in the amusement industry to ensure the creation of a product that is second to none".

That sounds good, so I decided to give them a call hoping to talk with Jonathan. Luck was with me, as it was Jonathan himself who answered my call. Jonathan kindly accepted an interview and provided me with precious details about his Star Wars roller coaster concept. As you can see on the pictures above and below, the concept looks like a dueling coaster but in fact it's more than that, it is a "warring coaster" which Jonathan on his web site describes like this: "The Warring Coaster concept takes an armed conflict from a film or a story and allows riders to live it. Through the use of multiple trains on multiple tracks, giant themed arenas, animatronics, interactive laser gun systems, and much, much more, the Battle of the Death Star* from Star Wars* roars to life! This is the ultimate in themed rides and roller coasters combined."



Well, it certainly looks like the "ultimate ride" and on the patent drawing above you'll see that the coaster can have up to six different tracks with six vehicles moving simultaneously. The launch would be done by linear induction or linear synchronis system and the vehicles would reach 50 miles per hour in a few seconds. And because this warring coaster is designed with a Star Wars theme, the vehicles - I mean, the fight - will be between X-Wing fighters and Tie Fighters! Each vehicle will have six seats, and each guest will be able to use a mounted laser gun to shoot at the "enemy". Each hit will be counted and will appear on the fighter’s screen, and in addition to the usual lap bar there will a grab bar which will be helpful to guests if they need to steady themselves while they are shooting.



One of the questions I asked Jonathan was about the size of the X-Wings and Tie fighters. When you look at the drawings of the X-Wing fighter above and the Tie Fighter below, the vehicles look huge and I wondered if it was possible to have such big vehicles on a coaster track. According to Jonathan it would not be a problem as long as the vehicles are light enough. If we take the X-Wing fighter, for instance, the wings would be made of fiber glass over an aluminum frame with minimal steel reinforcement, and of course the important "middle" part of the vehicle frame and structure will be in steel.



Still, when we look at the drawing with its incredible tracks and considering the large size of the vehicles I couldn't stop thinking that this indoor project will require a huge facility and Jonathan confirmed that his concept indeed requires a huge building. But the best is yet to come, as this building would be fully themed so that the epic battle between X-Wings and Tie Fighters would take place over the surface of the Death Star and inside the famous Death Star trenches - yes, the same trenches in which the final battle happened at the end of the first Star Wars movie (Episode 4) or also in Star Tours 1! You can see in the drawing above where it is written "Main Trench". You'll note also the words "Millenium Falcon" which indicates that Han Solo’s fighter should be included in the decor.

Another great idea - a genius idea I must say - is the one related to the queue. As there will be two "teams" riding at the same time, guests will be divided – they will either join the "rebels" and board an X-Wing fighter or they will join the "Empire" and board a Tie Fighter - they will be directed down two different paths and in each of them they will have access to Death Star or Rebel Fleet ship turrets - as such, the queue decor will be "inside" the Death Star or a Rebel Fleet ship. Each turret will be equipped with laser guns AND using these laser guns guests in the queue will be able to "fire" at the roller coaster vehicles as they enter the Death Star trenches! On the drawing below the numbers 406, 410 and 416 represents the locations of some of the turrets guns.



Each hit from the turret guns to the vehicles would tally additional points which would be counted in the final count. At the end of each ride, depending who is the winner (based on the number of points), either the Death Star will "explode" - with the use of lighting and pyrotechnic effects - or, if the Empire wins it will be the rebel planet base which will "explode" thanks to projection effects.



Isn't it an amazing concept? It surely is, but, as with each concept, there are also some difficulties which would need to be resolved. For example, how the guests would board each vehicle, especially the X-Wing fighter. Jonathan imagined a system where the upper wings could be moved down to make the boarding easier, as shown on the first drawing on items 516 and 526. Technically, Jonathan is pretty sure that everything he designed in this ride can be done. Of course the biggest problem would be the cost of the ride. To give you an idea, at WDI this kind of ride would cost probably around $150M, or less if it was built by someone else - not to mention the cost of the important licensing rights to Lucas Film Ltd. The huge facility would cost a lot, too. The ride hour capacity could be also a problem, especially considering the inevitable tremendous success of this Star Wars ride concept. Even with six tracks, considering that each of the six vehicles will embark six guests that makes 36 guests only for each ride, and considering that it would be probably a 3 minutes ride that makes an hour capacity of 720 guests which is indeed not enough. However, the patent notes that a proper block-section design could allow for multiple vehicles to run on each track at the same time, which would resolved this hour capacity problem.

Regardless, it is a fantastic Star Wars attraction concept, and probably just like you, I wish to see it becoming real as soon as possible. Jonathan unfortunately can't propose his concept directly to WDI as Imagineering generally doesn’t accept concepts coming from the outside but who knows, if Georges Lucas himself happens to read this article and love Jonathan's ride idea then we might ride this Star Wars roller coaster in the future!

All pictures and patent drawings: copyright GordonRides, LLC 2009 - all rights reserved

* Death Star, Star Wars are trademarks of their respective owners who do not endorse GordonRides LLC, nor are they in any way connected with GordonRides. Concepts presented in The Warring Coaster are the subject of several pending patent applications owned by Jonathan Gordon, the principal of GordonRides.