Disneyrewind - June 26, 1989 Delta Dreamflight opens at Walt Disney World

On June 26th 1989, "Delta Dreamflight" attraction opens in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Sponsored by Delta Air Lines, it replaces "If You Could Fly attraction."

Brief History of "Delta Dreamflight"

"If You Had Wings" (June 5, 1972 – June 1, 1987)
"If You Had Wings" was one of the original attractions at Walt Disney World. This ride was sponsored like so many early rides by a corporate benefactor, here it was Eastern Air Lines.  The whole reason for their sponsorship was to try to get people to fly. The ride employed the omni-mover ride system that was designed for the haunted mansion at disneyland in 1969, was a ride that if my memory serves me correctly didn't have a lot of physical props but was mostly motion picture projections on screens, eggshaped speed tunnels, mirrors and screens etc. And had an infectious song by Buddy Baker "If You Had Wings". It also had narration by Orson Welles. Of interesting note this ride was a free ride and never required any tickets back when all rides required an A-E ticket or ride. Eastern withdrew it's sponsorship and the ride closed on June 1st to scrub their name from the storyline.


"If You Could Fly" (June 6, 1987 - January 4, 1989)
The ride reopend on June 6th 1987 in one of the fastest turnarounds in history as "If You Could Fly." Everything was the same except there was no references to Eastern Air Lines and the theme song was changed to "If You Could Fly" which was dull to say the least. On January 4, 1989, "If You Could Fly" was permanently closed.

"Delta Dreamflight" (June 23, 1989 – January 1, 1996)
Delta took over sponsorship of the ride and all the sets were removed and changed, but the ride system (omni-movers) was left as original.  Instead of tropical getaways and romantic locations the storyline is about the evolution of flight. The rumors are Delta dropped sponsorship of "Delta Dreamflight" to focus it's efforts on the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

"Dreamflight" (January 1, 1996 to June 4, 1996)
After Delta departed the picture it was renamed to simply "Dreamflight".

"Take Flight" (June 5, 1996 - January 1998)
"Dreamflight" reopened as "Take Flight". It was only a slight refurbishment; all references to Delta were removed and the attraction's popular theme songs were rerecorded. Take Flight closed its doors for good in January 1998.

Now comes the interesting part in this story, as the entire ride system was stripped of it's omni-mover carriages and they were replaced with spinable cars and the ride became "Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin" on November 3rd 1998. But the original ride track was unchanged and the path through the building is the same as it was in 1972 when "If You Had Wings" opened!