Jet Packs
| Jet Packs | |
|---|---|
| Park | Shanghai Disneyland |
| Land / area | Tomorrowland |
| Type | Aerial carousel |
| Opened | June 16, 2016 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering |
| Height req. | 112 cm (44 in) |
| Status | Operating |
Jet Packs is an aerial carousel in Tomorrowland at Shanghai Disneyland. It is the Shanghai version of the rocket-spinner ride family best known as the Astro Orbiter at the other Disney parks, redesigned around personal jetpacks: two-person, floorless vehicles circle a central energy sphere, and riders control their own altitude as they fly. It opened with the park on June 16, 2016, following a soft opening on May 7, 2016.[1][2]
History
The ride type is one of Disney's oldest. Rocket spinners have circled the Tomorrowlands of the other castle parks since the 1950s and 1960s, evolving through names such as Astro Jets, Rocket Jets and Astro Orbiter, and the type had reached every other Disney resort before Shanghai, including as the Orbitron at Hong Kong Disneyland. Each version spins two-person vehicles on arms around a central monument, with riders raising and lowering their own vehicle in flight.[3]
Shanghai's Tomorrowland was designed without the elevated central platform on which the Astro Orbiter sits at some earlier parks; the land is an open plaza beneath a colour-changing canopy, anchored by TRON Lightcycle Power Run. Jet Packs was therefore built at ground level and given a new identity suited to that setting, replacing rockets with jetpacks and the usual planetary monument with a large central sphere, presented as the energy source the vehicles orbit. It soft-opened during the park's trial operations on May 7, 2016, and opened officially with Shanghai Disneyland on June 16, 2016.[4]
Experience
Sixteen vehicles are attached by mechanical arms to the central sphere. Riders board in pairs and are strapped into seats styled as rocket-powered backpacks; the vehicles are floorless, so riders' legs dangle in the open, reinforcing the impression of flying on a jetpack rather than sitting in an aircraft. As the arms begin to rotate, the sphere at the centre spins faster, and the vehicles sweep around it several stories above the Tomorrowland plaza.[5][6]
Controls at each rider's side — described variously as joystick or button controls — raise and lower the vehicle through the flight. The higher a vehicle climbs, the more it pitches forward, so altitude changes the character of the ride as well as the view. From the top of the circuit riders look out over Tomorrowland and across much of the park, and the attraction is often recommended at dusk, when the land's lighting comes on. Jet Packs has a minimum height requirement of 112 cm (44 in), the second-highest in the park after TRON Lightcycle Power Run, reflecting its height and rotation speed; that requirement sets it apart from gentler spinners such as Dumbo the Flying Elephant, which carries no minimum.[7][8]
See also
- TRON Lightcycle Run
- Buzz Lightyear Planet Rescue
- Shanghai Disneyland
- List of Shanghai Disneyland attractions
References
- ↑ Jet Packs. Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-11-14.
- ↑ Astro Orbiter. Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-11-14.
- ↑ Astro Orbiter. Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-11-14.
- ↑ Jet Packs. Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-11-14.
- ↑ The Top 10 Shanghai Disneyland Attractions You Should Not Miss. Klook. Retrieved 2026-11-14.
- ↑ Jet Packs. Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-11-14.
- ↑ Shanghai Disneyland. China Discovery. Retrieved 2026-11-14.
- ↑ Shanghai Disneyland Rides & Attractions. Shanghai Park Guide. Retrieved 2026-11-14.