Fun Find Friday
January 13, 2012
One year ago we began the
Days of the Week and I started out our Fun
Find Friday articles at the location I
thought would be most fitting, the center of
Walt Disney World. Over the past year we've
taken a look at several different Fun Finds
in all of the Walt Disney World parks,
Disneyland, hotels, and much much more. For
today's Fun Find we will be taking a look at
not just the center of Walt Disney World,
but at the park as a whole. Our Fun Find
begins over at the Backlot Tour.

While on your tour you will find several props from
different Disney (and non-Disney) films throughout the years. Some
highlights include Herbie the Love Bug, a Snowspeeder from The
Empire Strikes Back, and the Muppet Taxi. However, while on the tour
you will find what could be the most unique of all items on the
tour:

This is the N234MM or
November 234 Mickey Mouse, or the Mouse for
short. This plane was the actual plane Walt
Disney and other executives would fly in
while plotting out the plans for Walt Disney
World. While in this plane Walt chose where
the center of Walt Disney World would be and
figured out the location for the Magic
Kingdom, his hotels, golf courses, and so
much more. Naturally, while the plans were
being created Walt decided to share his
plans with the general public on television.
During his television special, Walt showed viewers a
map of the entire Walt Disney World Resort (at that time only known
as the Disney World Resort).

What made this map extremely interesting was the
fact that Disney planned on having an airport in the very southern
portion of the property. This would allow guests to fly into the
airport and stay on Disney property for their entire vacation. But,
this in turn causes people to ask a simple question: was this the
location of where Walt Disney used to land his plane while walking
around property?

The answer is actually no
and leads us to our Fun Find (I know, cut to
the chase Brent!). You see, when Disney
started working on the "Florida Project"
they needed to land their plane at a place
that wouldn't create a lot of attention. The
solution? Land the plan a little bit above
the center of Walt Disney World. Amazingly
enough, this air strip is still present
today! If you go through the Magic Kingdom
gates (that you drive through) you'll take
the first road on your right and almost
immediately on your left you will find the
below image:

This, my friends, is the
famous location that Walt and his team would
travel to throughout the year while doing
research! After Walt passed away, The Mouse
continued to fly exectives back and forth
from California to Florida until it
eventually retired at Disney's Hollywood
Studios. Interestingly enough, the plane did
not make its final touchdown on Walt's
airstrip, but instead on the road that is
parallel to Disney's Hollywood Studios and
Epcot (as seen below)!

Thank you to everyone for
the amazing support for the past year! I
hope you are excited for a year full of Fun
Finds!
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Find Friday