[birds whistling, chirping]
[Fritz] It takes a special breed of engineer to enjoy
and to flourish in Imagineering.
To ask a typical engineer,
"Hey, let's go build a machine that feels just like flying,"
might seem a little crazy,
but flexibility, to be able to roll with an idea that may seem a little crazy...
could turn into something real and pretty amazing.
[chattering]
[female voice] Please enter all the way into the room,
and stand on the number you are given.
[male voice] Fiber is connected to an...
I'm Ed Fritz. My title is Ride Engineering Executive.
So, I grew up in the south side of Detroit
and went to school and studied engineering at Michigan.
I started developing prototype automobiles.
Then about a year later,
received a phone call from the Imagineering team in California.
They needed someone to help them develop the ride system.
I convinced my wife that this was a two-year gig maximum.
Um, well, that was 30 years ago.
Amusement parks, big roller coasters,
those are designed to be visceral experiences.
But here, at Walt Disney World, we tell stories
in a way that is very, very convincing.
In the case of Flight of Passage, the big idea was to put our guests
on the back of a banshee to fly through Pandora.
My job is to take the creative vision for a new attraction
and figure out a way to engineer the ride to deliver the story
or the vision that the creative folks at our company have.
How long are the rows. How many levels high does it need to be?
So, my typical day is filled with many different tasks.
But you wanted every guest to have
that individualized experience as part of that, right?
Because I have responsibility for so many different attractions,
one day I'm working on ropeways, the next day it's water flow,
the next day it's roller coaster, next day it's motion base.
It's always something new.
So, there's no opportunity to get bored for sure.
Take a look at what this link chair is from the front,
and you have your person sitting here.
During meetings, you can be all over the map.
We have sketching, we have ideas being thrown around.
And the technical people, like myself, are in that meeting
to help enable and suggest other technologies we can use
to deliver even better experiences.
[male Imagineer] So, that was the ride system right there.
And it's really exciting and a bit inspiring
when you listen to all the ideas that we have.
And, you know, which one of those ideas do you build?
You know, they're all great.
You have to choose the one that's gonna be the big one.
So, we're in the link rooms at Flight of Passage,
and these are the link chairs.
You sit in the chair and it feels like a hard laboratory chair, sort of,
and then once the ride comes to life and you're on the back of a banshee,
it starts to feel like the body of the animal breathing in and out as you fly.
And all these high-tech engineering tools and videos you see on TV
about how engineers do their work--
The process we used on the Flight of Passage
started very, very simply with pencil, paper, plywood, foam,
prototypes of the link chair, prototypes of machinery,
prototypes of the media,
and all those prototypes individually are, sort of, worked on,
and the problems are solved one at a time.
It's not until it all comes together at the end
that you realize what an amazing thing you've created.
Growing up, I had no idea what Imagineering was,
but after meeting the folks in Florida
and then going out to California and working with Imagineers,
it's like a family.
It's really inspiring to come out in the middle of a long day
and just hang out at the exit.
Sitting over by the rocks and just listen to people come off the ride.
It's pretty exciting and pretty moving.
I see us utilizing technology even more
to deliver more immersive, more interactive experiences.
When you look back at the bar that was set from attractions like Indiana Jones,
Mission: SPACE and Flight of Passage, the bar continues to be raised.
And I see us going forward raising that bar even further,
and I really enjoy being a part of the beginnings of those programs
when we're thinking of these new ideas, being able to deliver those experiences.