It’s not often you get to meet one of the forefathers of modern roller coasters. Bill Watkins, for those who do not know, designed Space Mountain at Disneyland. He developed many of the methods currently used in coaster design. It was a true privilege to have him come to OSU and give a 4-day lecture on how re designed and built Space Mountain. Here are some great pictures of the event:

Here is bill explaining some basic concepts:

Roll speeds:

Good use of the white board.

Reading through the packet.

A Space Mountain Chassis layout. Pretty cool stuff. I wonder how many people have ever seen this stuff before!

Bill Watkins put on a great lecture and I think everyone involved really enjoyed it. Hopefully he’ll be able to make it back sometime. If you’re interested in speaking to the Theme Park Engineering Group, please contact us! We love it when professionals come in and tell is how it really is in the trenches!