TWA Moonliner
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The TWA Moonliner was a futuristic exhibit at Tomorrowland at Disneyland in the 1950s that marked TWA product placement by Howard Hughes.
At 80 feet tall it was the tallest structure in the park -- eight feet taller than the Sleeping Beauty Castle. Adjoining the rocket was the "Rocket to the Moon" exhibit/show.
It was designed by John Hench, one of the original Disney Imagineers, with the help of rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, and resembled a V-2 rocket depicting what travel would be like in 1986. Its "retractable" legs were said to resemble TWA's famed Lockheed Super Constellation. It featured port holes, a cockpit, and a boarding ramp. The Moonliner was to be powered by atomic power.
After Hughes left TWA the airline pulled the sponsorship of the Moonliner and it became the Douglas Moonliner named after new sponsor Douglas Aircraft Company.
The moonliner stayed at the park until 1967. A scaled down version with the familiar TWA red stripes but without the TWA logo was added as part of the new 1998 version of Tomorrowland and is used to promote Coca-Cola "Delivering refreshment to a thirsty galaxy." It sits next to the building that used to house Rocket to the Moon, now Redd Rockett's Pizza Port.
A 32-foot version of the Moonliner, known as the TWA Moonliner II, was placed on top of the TWA Corporate Headquarters' Building in Kansas City, Missouri.
