if you want a rabbit hole to dive down, look up the F-117 nighthawk and the color chosen for it.
turns out the sky isn't black black, it's a not-black shade you need to get just right or else you've just created a distinctly shaped and identifiable chunk of sky.
Considering it's attached to what looks like a Paramotor or even hanging from one, it probably did not do well on landing. I suspect it was 'one time use' and building a new one every time they wanted to do this would be expensive, especially considering the safety risks of a craft like that.
This reminds me of the day I took my three year old twins to the dinosaur museum. These kids were pumped, we walk in the door of the Smithsonian and it's nothing but bones. They were pretty disappointed that day. 😂
Parents can't suspend their disbelief for long enough to realize that it is a park meant for children. Yes there are people making it happen, which is very impressive. It is not actual friggin magic. They need to have some imagination and enjoy the show.
It's pretty underwhelming by Disney standards, They even have to spotlight it from the ground because its too dark but you wouldn't see the fireworks well if it was brighter out
TBF if I couldn't see what was happening and all I could hear was people yelling and you telling me there's a fire-breathing dragon flying over the castle, I think I'd just have to believe you.
I imagine they could totally do this again, minus the fire though. that fire was probably dangerous AND it's the only point you could see the paraglider.
My guess is maybe it was deemed dangerous to the stuntman.
I’m guessing more dangerous to any potential lawsuits below. The paraglider knows what he signed up for, if this thing crashes and kills a family that’d be leagues worse.
That has to be the answer, it’s Disney, their whole thing is not letting guests see behind the curtain even during an accident, the risk to reward for a person to fall or catch fire hundreds of feet over the filled park makes me wonder how they allowed it even once. Personally it’s cool as hell especially for kids and I could see a remote glider or zip line version being relatively safe and still look good at night.
Outside of specially designated tours Disney usually doesn't like behind the scenes stuff like this showing up to preserve the magic. Whenever the park is decorated they take great pains so guests never notice the decorations going up. They plan the Halloween-Christmas decoration transition all year so it looks like they happen overnight by magic.
I'd guess some executive or manager saw video of the parachute showing and didn't like it.
I would wager when they did it, something happened that the pilot found unsafe that didn't happen during practice runs, and they decided it wasn't safe to reattempt. Like they pushed an envelope during practice and crossed it during the performance and were like, yeah, this is a bad idea, let's never chance it again.
If you want a better way to say that, try "Yea I saw that in the latest Defunctland video." I says the same thing, but comes off as you adding more info instead of informing us you passed the knowledge check.
Yeah, just a dude paragliding over a large crowd at one of the largest theme parks in the world with a dragon puppet attached shooting fireballs at night. No big deal.
I feel like they should do this minus the fire. Fire, besides being insanely dangerous, was the only time you could see the paraglider. I can only imagine maybe it was deemed too risky to do again after landing.
Honestly the fire was the most disappointing part anyways. You expect it to clearly come out the mouth and have a bit of hang time and spread. It's just a firework thats apparently impossible to launch in a way that makes it look like it's leaving the dragons mouth and not being set off in the general vicinity
I'd be very surprised if Disney has an insurance company that can "flip their tops". A company that massive, rich, and litigious has to be self-insured.
believe it or not the FAA has different rules for fireworks shot FROM an aircraft, vs shot into teh air. they are weird about aircraft shooting the fireworks
There's a restricted airspace above the magic kingdom. It's basically a no-fly zone. That being said, they probably had to jump through a lot of paperwork hoops to get that thing airborne
Based on the number of helicopters I see daily while I'm there, it is definitely not a no-fly zone.
Edit: did a little research and found that while there is a no-fly zone around 7-seas lagoon; Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Disney Springs, and many of the southern resorts (like the Riviera or Caribbean Beach) are not actually in the no-fly zone, which is where I remember seeing all the choppers!
The FAA will give waivers for many of their rules if you provide plans to deal with the potential risks and file the proper paperwork, and I'd expect Disney to be quite familiar with that process.
I would not expect this to be the sort of thing that the FAA would flat out refuse to approve, especially for Disney.
I think I remember photos of these leaking with Ikran skins while Disney was building Pandora down at animal kingdom. They were actually flying around and whatnot.
I think the jumpscare was the point. The higher-ups kept saying they wanted a life-size dinosaur and the Imagineers made that to show how bad that idea was.
I think this person is mixing up two Disney World ideas. Fantasy land is a section of the Magic Kingdom Park. The dragon in this video was to celebrate the opening of this section. There aren't really any dragon things in this section of the park it has a Snow White roller coaster, a Little Mermaid dark ride and a Beauty and the Beast restaurant as well as other things. Another park on the Disney World property is Animal Kingdom which was supposed to have 3 sections, animals, dinosaurs, and fantasy. They ran into budget issues and only had animals and dinosaurs when they opened with plans to add the fantasy section later. It eventually became the Pandora area based on James Cameron's Avatar.
Those budget issues are also why Islands of Adventure ended up with Dueling Dragons; the concept was taken after Universal hired some of the laid off engineers - though what they ended up with was far more intense (and problematic) than what Disney had in mind.
It eventually became the Pandora area based on James Cameron's Avatar.
And didn't it become that because they passed on doing a Harry Potter area due to the cost of the train? So Universal Studios grabbed it and Disney realized their mistake and scrambled to grab another property
If my knowledge is correct, Universal epic had something similar and the only way that you could fly it is if the weather conditions are absolutely perfect, here in Orlando is not often, wondering if this is the same type of situation.
Spoilers: It was paraglided in with airboat-style fans for control, had firework launchers onboard to achieve the fire-breath attack, only used for this one grand opening of the New Fantasyland section and a few other marketing campaigns, and currently (as of this article) rests on display inside the Walt Disney Imagineering offices.
Careful the words Disney, magic, and sued used in the same sentence automatically results in Disney deploying Mickey Mouse commandos to your location. Be ready
that's just moe syzlak, in a stolen fan man costume, trying to do some good in the world to cleanse his soul after taking advantage of homer in his boxing career.
yeah the thing was probably one big engineering and accounting nightmare. Significantly more likely to crash and burn literally, costing the park even more money.
I would LOVE to be a disney engineer. I would NOT love to engineer a flying pyrotechnics accident just waiting to happen. A flying mechanical fire-breathing dragon sounds cool as hell until you start trying to actually design one.
Wow thats cool that because of all the lights below, you can see its shadow above it in the clouds! That’s my favorite species of dragon, I’ve only seen one once before when flying over Romania. Crazy that there was one flying over Florida.
Damn cool effect, surprised they don't still do it.
I only saw the paraglider when it blew the fire. It wouldn’t work on nights with a bright moon though.
nowadays just wrap it around a drone setup
but yeah I saw the paraglider the second the flare gun was fired
But also, we have better materials. They could use that crazy black paint and now its hard to see like a night fury.
if you want a rabbit hole to dive down, look up the F-117 nighthawk and the color chosen for it.
turns out the sky isn't black black, it's a not-black shade you need to get just right or else you've just created a distinctly shaped and identifiable chunk of sky.
Yep the prototype of the f117 was a dark blue/grey part of the have blue stealth program. But the production version was more dark dark grey/black
Except it would probably be too dark
Night isn’t pitch black though, the problem is the black parachute is too dark against the sky
Universal Orlando did exactly that, turned out pretty cool.
Considering it's attached to what looks like a Paramotor or even hanging from one, it probably did not do well on landing. I suspect it was 'one time use' and building a new one every time they wanted to do this would be expensive, especially considering the safety risks of a craft like that.
I'd be tempted to bet that the cost of the thing is less than the insurance/risk-adjusted liability for each flight.
In materials ptobably, but with the man hours thrown in it might be close. Definitely expensive insurance though!
Probably because you can see the parachute above it
Oh noooo... its only a gigantic firebreathing marionette controlled by a flying motorized paraglider pilot!!
My disappointment is immense and my day is ruinedthat is FREAKING AWESOME[removed]
That's just a ruse. They're keeping it tuned for when the next kaiju attacks.
Who is laying dormant while you zip line into its mouth
I’m not even a Gundam fan, went to ocean diver mall just to see it.
its one of the coolest things to see up close, feels otherworldly
This reminds me of the day I took my three year old twins to the dinosaur museum. These kids were pumped, we walk in the door of the Smithsonian and it's nothing but bones. They were pretty disappointed that day. 😂
Parents can't suspend their disbelief for long enough to realize that it is a park meant for children. Yes there are people making it happen, which is very impressive. It is not actual friggin magic. They need to have some imagination and enjoy the show.
It's pretty underwhelming by Disney standards, They even have to spotlight it from the ground because its too dark but you wouldn't see the fireworks well if it was brighter out
Weird they didnt just put lights on it…
Kids won't notice that, especially ones with bad eyesight who are blinded by the other disney attractions.
"Blind kids are gonna love this shit"
TBF if I couldn't see what was happening and all I could hear was people yelling and you telling me there's a fire-breathing dragon flying over the castle, I think I'd just have to believe you.
Now that I think about it, having a blind kid would be extremely cost-effective parenting.
"There's cool shit happening all around you."
"Is there?!"
"Yeah! Man, I'm such a good Dad."
-turns off mp3 player filled with random fantasy noises-
Oh wow! Tom Cruise!
Let him think the world is Robot-Pirate Island
I imagine they could totally do this again, minus the fire though. that fire was probably dangerous AND it's the only point you could see the paraglider.
My guess is maybe it was deemed dangerous to the stuntman.
I’m guessing more dangerous to any potential lawsuits below. The paraglider knows what he signed up for, if this thing crashes and kills a family that’d be leagues worse.
Wouldn't be great PR, but as long as that family has Disney+ the park is in the clear liability-wise.
That has to be the answer, it’s Disney, their whole thing is not letting guests see behind the curtain even during an accident, the risk to reward for a person to fall or catch fire hundreds of feet over the filled park makes me wonder how they allowed it even once. Personally it’s cool as hell especially for kids and I could see a remote glider or zip line version being relatively safe and still look good at night.
Why would that matter?
Outside of specially designated tours Disney usually doesn't like behind the scenes stuff like this showing up to preserve the magic. Whenever the park is decorated they take great pains so guests never notice the decorations going up. They plan the Halloween-Christmas decoration transition all year so it looks like they happen overnight by magic.
I'd guess some executive or manager saw video of the parachute showing and didn't like it.
You couldn't see it on the night
They can just use drones now.
Figure drone technology has got to be there now that you don’t need a parachute
I mean it's just really expensive to have a parachutist I'm sure.
How much are they spending on their nightly fireworks shows?
I would wager when they did it, something happened that the pilot found unsafe that didn't happen during practice runs, and they decided it wasn't safe to reattempt. Like they pushed an envelope during practice and crossed it during the performance and were like, yeah, this is a bad idea, let's never chance it again.
They have no reason too. This wasn't for the guests, this was for the media. They only have to film it flying once.
That's what Defuctland concluded as well in their recent deep dive into Disney's history of such characters
Because they used it on the day all the media was there reporting fantasy land
It’s not that they don’t want to reuse the dragon. It’s just that he flew away and no one knows where it is
Probably tormenting some dwarves and a hobbit.
Dragon? Nonsense, there hasn't been a dragon in these parts for a thousand yeeeeeaaaAAAAAAAH
This made me laugh so hard my partner told me to calm down 😀
Stupid fat hobbitses!
No, he’s just a recluse
Burninating the peasants in their thatched roof cottages!
That wasn't a dragon...Thats a dragon man. And his name is
TROGDOR!!!!!
They have it glued to a ceiling of one of the buildings.
I’m pretty sure it’s specifically Imagineering’s R&D department that the Dragon is now displayed.
That sucks that they killed and stuffed it like that. Pretty cruel if you ask me.
I'm aware. I watched the latest Defunctland video.
If you want a better way to say that, try "Yea I saw that in the latest Defunctland video." I says the same thing, but comes off as you adding more info instead of informing us you passed the knowledge check.
People's incessant tendency to think everyone knows things for the same reason they know things.
Classic Drogon
Pointy chairs cutting you or not cutting you is no basis for a system of government
better melt that pointy throne for metaphorical reasons, before flying away
They should have learned How to Tame Their Dragon
The dragon flew off to DreamWorks. That's why Disney couldn't learn how to train it.
He's protecting Disney's stack of gold.
YOU SHALL NOT PASS, without paying a toll cause it's Florida after all.
Bran’s on it.
They are trying to find a true Targaryen to bring it back.
Last I heard, he was hibernating in the sewers below London
Nonsense, there hasn't been a dragon in these parts for a thousand years!
Faendal thinks he can woo Camilla Valerius before me, she's already mine I keep telling him!
A dragon! I saw a dragon!
What is it now, mother?
Mother, you’re dripping.
Elliott noises intensify
Can you believe it? Dragons! In your own homeland! What are you going to do?
This one does not know, but he hopes his family is safe in Riverhold.
Every. Time. in Elden Root.
My cousin’s out fighting dragons and what do I get? Guard duty.
That was good! Let's get another one.
Meriadoc Brandybuck... And Peregrin Took
I might have known
Speech, Bilbo!
My dear Bagginses and Boffins!
Tooks and Brandybucks!
Not until after you’ve scrubbed all the dishes
Is that a parachute above the dragon? cool effect
I think it's a paraglider.
Yea it’s just a dude in a fan powered paraglider with a dragon puppet attached.
"Just"!? That's badass! 8^)
Yeah, just a dude paragliding over a large crowd at one of the largest theme parks in the world with a dragon puppet attached shooting fireballs at night. No big deal.
He simply didn't want to do it again, mystery solved.
How exactly do you launch a paraglider with a dragon puppet?! That had to be dangerous AF
SKYHOOK!
Actually, a little searching pays off! The pilot was in the dragon, the parasail was just the airfoil 🤦🏼 so simple
That's exactly what I was thinking!
well i want one now
The dude is the dragon. He's in an animatronic costume.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iQo-RXlvPaM
FAA probably had something to say about lighting off incendiary devices from an aircraft (powered chute is one)
I feel like they should do this minus the fire. Fire, besides being insanely dangerous, was the only time you could see the paraglider. I can only imagine maybe it was deemed too risky to do again after landing.
Honestly the fire was the most disappointing part anyways. You expect it to clearly come out the mouth and have a bit of hang time and spread. It's just a firework thats apparently impossible to launch in a way that makes it look like it's leaving the dragons mouth and not being set off in the general vicinity
Even without the fire its still dangerous to fly one over a very crowded area. I bet their insurance company flipped their tops about this.
Hot air balloons have fire
I'd be very surprised if Disney has an insurance company that can "flip their tops". A company that massive, rich, and litigious has to be self-insured.
As opposed to the nightly mortar bombardment of a fireworks display?
believe it or not the FAA has different rules for fireworks shot FROM an aircraft, vs shot into teh air. they are weird about aircraft shooting the fireworks
There's a restricted airspace above the magic kingdom. It's basically a no-fly zone. That being said, they probably had to jump through a lot of paperwork hoops to get that thing airborne
Based on the number of helicopters I see daily while I'm there, it is definitely not a no-fly zone.
Edit: did a little research and found that while there is a no-fly zone around 7-seas lagoon; Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Disney Springs, and many of the southern resorts (like the Riviera or Caribbean Beach) are not actually in the no-fly zone, which is where I remember seeing all the choppers!
The FAA will give waivers for many of their rules if you provide plans to deal with the potential risks and file the proper paperwork, and I'd expect Disney to be quite familiar with that process.
I would not expect this to be the sort of thing that the FAA would flat out refuse to approve, especially for Disney.
The FAA has allowed quite a few pyrotechnics from parachute winged crafts. Oshkosh has done a few shows with them.
As in B’gosh?
Meanwhile at Oshkosh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWcw06Om3Qg
M'gosh!
The subtlety of this line. 👏🏽🎩
A plane was allowed to deploy pyrotechnics over Burning Man last year. FAA approved as far as I know.
I think I remember photos of these leaking with Ikran skins while Disney was building Pandora down at animal kingdom. They were actually flying around and whatnot.
I see you watched Defunctland too
The worst part of this is it was seen again in some imagineering robotics studio as shown in the video. Just never shown again to the public.
I see you also watch Defunctland
The worst part is that they didn't finish the giant dinosaur.
That Dino was fucking awesome…even if it could kill someone
That Dino was fucking awesome…
evenbecause it could kill someoneWho the fuck knew it'd be Disney Imagineering of all people to build Metal Gear?
I see you also watch Defunctland
I'll never get over how Disney made a goddamned Metal Gear, used it to jumpscare their staff, and never mentioned it again
I think the jumpscare was the point. The higher-ups kept saying they wanted a life-size dinosaur and the Imagineers made that to show how bad that idea was.
It's a shame they don't fly my boy Nemo above Disneyland.
Nemo deserved more.
Nah, Nemo would have inevitably started flirting with guests
Let the dragon flirt with guests dammit
I’m disappointed I could never see that dragon again, because now it will never flirt with me
Annoys me that they never did anything with the Fantasy idea the dragon was supposed to represent...
elaborate
I think this person is mixing up two Disney World ideas. Fantasy land is a section of the Magic Kingdom Park. The dragon in this video was to celebrate the opening of this section. There aren't really any dragon things in this section of the park it has a Snow White roller coaster, a Little Mermaid dark ride and a Beauty and the Beast restaurant as well as other things. Another park on the Disney World property is Animal Kingdom which was supposed to have 3 sections, animals, dinosaurs, and fantasy. They ran into budget issues and only had animals and dinosaurs when they opened with plans to add the fantasy section later. It eventually became the Pandora area based on James Cameron's Avatar.
Those budget issues are also why Islands of Adventure ended up with Dueling Dragons; the concept was taken after Universal hired some of the laid off engineers - though what they ended up with was far more intense (and problematic) than what Disney had in mind.
And didn't it become that because they passed on doing a Harry Potter area due to the cost of the train? So Universal Studios grabbed it and Disney realized their mistake and scrambled to grab another property
Treasure Planet theme in the background goes hard.
only the real ones know 😤
Looking through the comments to see if anyone else heard it. Glad im not crazy
Have you seen gold prices since then? Brother had to go overseas for some Arbitrage
Disney doesnt have a stellar record with fire breathing dragons 🐲♨️
Dragon catches fire during Fantasmic! show at Disneyland - YouTube https://share.google/fffgSWm0HdGOiqi38
Probably because of the massive risk involved with the paraglider burning to the ground.
If my knowledge is correct, Universal epic had something similar and the only way that you could fly it is if the weather conditions are absolutely perfect, here in Orlando is not often, wondering if this is the same type of situation.
that one random guy from far far away seeing the dragon " aliensss;)"
For those wondering: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iQo-RXlvPaM
Looks like he had WAY too much to do.
Sad that those poor people were entombed in that shipping crate at the end.
Spoilers: It was paraglided in with airboat-style fans for control, had firework launchers onboard to achieve the fire-breath attack, only used for this one grand opening of the New Fantasyland section and a few other marketing campaigns, and currently (as of this article) rests on display inside the Walt Disney Imagineering offices.
Article: https://www.extinctdisney.com/new-fantasyland-dragon/
It looks like a dude wearing a dragon suit shooting off Roman candles. They probably never did it again because he almost died.
For all we know, dude did die and Disney just has really good lawyers and people with NDAs in their pockets.
No one randomly saw this thing in prep day flights and shit their pants? Surprised I didn’t see this thing on random ufo/conspiracy threads.
Using this comment section to shill for Defunctland, if y'all find this fascinating you should watch both his videos on the history of animatronics
I saw a parasail above it. It might have been too dangerous to do it again.
My uncle helped build that
Ah, just finished the newest Defunctland?
Looks like it parachuted down. Probably never meant for more than one use and got utterly destroyed when it landed.
How dangerous was the stunt, though? Maybe it isn't worth the risk of human lives to have a cool effect.
What are you talking about?! Dragons haven’t been seen in the shire for over 1,300 years!
Drones could achieve a similar effect I’d think
Powered paraglider
No way
Imagine flying this over some uncontacted tribe lmao
Nah, that was one of the last actual dragons. He was convinced humans had gone back to having castles full of gold and was scoping the scene.
But Disney has anti-aircraft weapons (look it up) so he never made a move
Yes, I recently watched Defunctland's latest video too.
Dragon? More like a Para-Soar.
I’ll see myself out.
That’s not a dragon, that’s a dude with a paraglider. This guys a big fat phoney.
This would absolutely terrify a bunch of hobbits at an eleventy-first birthday bash
Respect for the Spot Light Operator on the ground!
Someone watched defuctlands “living characters” video recently lmao
Fireball clearly shows the parachute above lol
Yeah otherwise I would have believed it was a real fire breathing dragon..
As a Disney adult this totally ruined the magic for me :(((( I sued them for a refund and emotional damage.
Careful the words Disney, magic, and sued used in the same sentence automatically results in Disney deploying Mickey Mouse commandos to your location. Be ready
"This is a surprise tool that will help us later ;)" 💥💥💥🔫
Where all the Defunctland homies?
Trapped inside of their Finding Nemo contraptions.
My boy!
I know someone that watched the Defunctland video.
Is that a parachute? Must be a hang glider! That is so dope!
Its Trogdor!!
that's just moe syzlak, in a stolen fan man costume, trying to do some good in the world to cleanse his soul after taking advantage of homer in his boxing career.
After seeing the “fire” and then flying into it can now see the impracticality of a flying fire breathing dragon.
Too expensive.
That looked freaking awesome.
It’s obscenely dangerous
They couldn't get the intern to get back in it after night 1.
damn the clouds ruined what wouldve been a fully disguised paraglider
Nonsense, there haven’t been dragons in these parts for a thousand years…
They should've buzzed the tower with the dragon
"Negative DragonRider, the pattern is full"
Imagine flying this over one of those islands where uncontacted tribes live.
I believe the most realistic answer is that this thing fell apart during landing and they didn't fix it for that very reason.
yeah the thing was probably one big engineering and accounting nightmare. Significantly more likely to crash and burn literally, costing the park even more money.
I would LOVE to be a disney engineer. I would NOT love to engineer a flying pyrotechnics accident just waiting to happen. A flying mechanical fire-breathing dragon sounds cool as hell until you start trying to actually design one.
Universal has a monstrous nightmare that does this!
I don't know half of you half as well as I should like and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
Wow thats cool that because of all the lights below, you can see its shadow above it in the clouds! That’s my favorite species of dragon, I’ve only seen one once before when flying over Romania. Crazy that there was one flying over Florida.
The dragon is now peacefully living with donkey
This could have been a Kingdom Hearts summon.