While all of the attention was on Star Tours II, it seems that it is not the only attraction being considered at Disney, although it unclear what park the ride patent is for or if it was just a blue sky endeavor, but given the recent date, this could be something coming to one of the foreign parks, which will hopefully trickle back here in the US.
While not much is known about this new park if there is such a thing, one thing that was very specific in the patent was some drawings that were posted at a Disney site that are thought to be real patent requests for a roller coaster based on the Death Star battle. In this case, X-Wings would be against Tie Fighters on opposite tracks, going toward each other at various points. Now the interesting thing about that is that the schematic of the ride vehicle specifies a gun that can be fired by the rider apparently at the enemy, which would make for a very unique ride mechanic for a coaster. Our guess is that you get a certain amount of points for how much “damage” you can cause during the flight, but others can also hit you. The forward near misses would provide ample opportunity to “shoot” at the other ships, which because of the Tie’s large wings, would prevent side to side combat, but then that was the case in the movie too.
The vehicles themselves will represent the ship from whichever side is chosen, except instead of one pilot, there will be 6 seats in the cockpit area, each with its own weapon. When boarding, apparently you get to choose whether you want to be on the side of the Empire or the Rebels. No doubt there will be some sort of introduction.
The schematic for the entire ride does not show much more than a general track area and where the maintenance bays will be, but there is one particular part they do mention. And that is the Death Star trench. It’s hard to tell from the picture whether it will be like the movie with Tie-Fighters chasing the X-Wings at that point, which you’ll notice has an odd extension to the track versus the Imperial ships’ path on the end of the trench, or they will be head on. Some seem the think that latter is more likely. No word on whether one will get to fire at the exhaust port or not. Another place on the ride map is a section for the Millenium Falcon, which we assume to mean that you’ll be able to see it as you enter or exit the trench, perhaps even get to fire at it.
This really does look like a swell idea and if it is not created in the US, we hope Disney will bring the ride to one of the American parks later on.
