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The
story of "The Walt Disney Rocket" lost and found!
by John Fretts
About 35 years ago, give or take five years, while still living in Levittown I was taking the Amtrak through Levittown and remember seeing the old Walt Disney rocket sitting in a junkyard along the railroad tracks. As I recall, the school expanded
(possibly 1969) and the rocket had to go. A short time after that, I remember reading a tiny article in the Courier Times that the rocket was sold to an air museum in New England. A little bit of nostalgia that I tucked away. Time passed and after college and three years in the Army, I was hired by the Federal Government in 1976 assigned to our Washington Field Office. In February of 1994 I was transferred to Hartford, Connecticut. Just north of Hartford at the Hartford/Bradley Airport is the New England Air Museum. While on my house hunting trip, I took a ride to the airport and asked a curator about “The Rocket”. At the time, I didn’t know it was a Douglas Sky Rocket. I told the curator that I remembered it looked like a Bell X-1, the first plane to break the sound barrier. The curator said that all of the Bell X-1’s are accounted for and couldn’t help me further. Before my move, I told my older brother of my attempt to find “The Rocket”. He is a pilot and told me that it was a Douglas Sky Rocket, not a Bell X-1. At about the same time I ran into Norman Gross at our 25th Pennsbury High School reunion. Norm was the principal at Walt Disney Elementary at the time and told me that they were planning the schools the 40th Anniversary. I told Norm of my initial attempt to find “The Rocket”. He inspired me to continue the quest.
When I moved to Connecticut the following May, I called the museum. I talked to another curator and said that it was a Douglas Sky Rocket I was looking for. He said yes, they did have the rocket at one time, but sold it to an attorney in Connecticut. The curator gave me his name and phone number. I called the gentleman and shortly after that I went to his home. He opened the door to a barn and there it stood, “The Rocket”!! The owner would like to restore it. He even had a large tub of sand he removed from the interior. He couldn’t figure how the sand got there. I knew!!!….from the playground. He contacted Douglas Aircraft who informed him that it was not flyable and was a wind tunnel test model. As I remember, there was no wiring in the plane and no gauges in the cockpit. He said that a portion of the wing could be removed so that it could be put on a truck and moved around the country as part of a Navy recruiting display. He had the canopy, but I don't remember it being on "The Rocket" because we could climb into the cockpit.
The post card photo may have been taken by Life Magazine for a story that was never published. In the photo
of a group of children playing in or around the rocket, one of the children is the daughter of Roger Witt. Mr. Witt was coach of the Levittown American Little League World Champions and used to live in Lakeside. |
