Aviation Theme Park for Dayton, OH

I had just spoken with a friend of mine who is the on the board of directors for the Dayton Aviation Museum. He kinda chuckled when I told him the word of a proposed aviation theme park had hit cyberspace and said he would be sure to mention that at the meeting next week.

He did say this theme park would be many years off if it were to come to fuition at all. Right now, they are just bouncing around many different ideas on how to build upon the incredible aviation history in Dayton.

He said this wouldn't be a park with roller coasters, but more of an interactive, hands on type park. He did mention the possibilty of a few airplane type rides, and noting that the first parachute was developed in Dayton, we both thought of a parachute drop ride.

They also thought of an aviation camp, similar to the space camp in Huntsville, AL.

If this park were to develope, they would also like ideas on a huge aviation related icon that can be seen from miles away. Something that would become a symbol for the city like the St. Louis arch is.

Sounds like a great idea to me.

I actually have the newspaper (picked up from my dorm at UD, go FLYERS!) with his story. Ironically underneight the story is about an on going lawsuit about how Dayton wanted to build the worlds largest fountain but it failed. Maybe the egos reading the paper will look down one story.

At the end of the article they want to show us "their" plan for this. Ok, instead of this stupid thing, how about upgrade the schools, put new comptuers in, attract sporting events like FIRST Robotics and other competitions to the area, focus on turning around downtown Dayton, clean up the place, make DAYTON LOOK NICE!

That bridge across the Great Miami Gorge is going to be a serious undertaking! They can't reroute traffic anywhere else, so I'm assuming they will have to do one side of the bridge at a time? and put both lanes of traffic on one side until one side is complete, and then do the other side? That will be a mess for a longggg time. I can hardly wait. Looks like I'll be taking I-70 to I-75 home to Cincy once that starts. Unless they have some other massive master plan?

A three-lane bridge is actually a five lane bridge. You don't have to build all lanes at the same time. You can see on the I-271 over CVNP the supports are built right under the existing bridge. Build the new deck, tear down the old one, no interruption. Unginears are pretty smart people.

That bridge across the Great Miami was made three lanes 5-6 years ago. It is three lanes to almost Ceasars Creek Flea Market/ Fort Ancient exit. It's then two lanes till about 35 miles south of columbus where a huge three lane project is going on. Several spots from Columbus to Mansfield are either already or undergoing three lanes.

I'll agree with Jeff here on this whole 10-year I-71 project. Since I live in Columbus, and my immediate family is from Cleveland, I have to deal with all that great construction. I think this is the 9th year now of construction. Thankfully, it's getting done. more and more.

And the good news is that ODOT believes it'll be inadequate once all 240 miles are complete. :)

The land around WPAFB is pretty inactive most of the time around the fields. Special occasions & training/drills are about the only time I here/see it being used. Don't get me wrong, it's still an active base, but most of it is dedicated to aviation history already.

Most of the proposed sites their talking about for the future, are either already standing or will require very little land to construct. The theme park would by far be the crowning achievement, the article evens states it.

The Riverscape fountains (mentioned above) have pretty much been a joke from day one. They're neat...when they work! The laser shows they use the fountains for are neat too...when they work! But they have done a lot to improve the look of downtown I have to admit. That area has made downtown very welcoming IMO.

Wow, maybe I haven't been paying attention at all, which is kinda pathetic, but I coulda sworn it was 2 lanes on that bridge across the Great Miami! lol wow, I should actually pay attention.

Haha... "ungineers".... I think Jeff just coined a new word.

The Jeremiah Morrow Bridge IS only 2 lanes in each direction. And it spans the LITTLE Miami River gorge, not the Great Miami. ;-)

Also, the traffic on I-75 is nothing to sneeze at. In this part of the state, it's a much busier interstate than I-71. Starting just north of Troy, stretching all the way down to Richwood, Kentucky, I-75 is at the very minimum of 3 lanes in each direction, and of course wider as you get into Dayton and then Cincinnati. Having lived in Sidney, Ohio and traveled south along the interstate into West Chester on a regular basis, I assure you the traffic is far from light. It is quite busy throughout the majority of the day, and in fact the heaviest traveled part of the entire length of I-75 is through the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area.

...which is not where the museum is, and if it was, it still wouldn't attract 6 million people annually.

In commenting, I wasn't really thinking about the issue of attendance to the museum or any planned theme park. I was just clearing up a couple of points of confusion about a few items I saw mentioned. But you're right - the museum probably still wouldn't see that many people annually. Does any particular attraction in the region actually draw that many people each year?

Gatlinburg, Branson and other areas rely on a mix of attractions, as well as natural environment, to draw in tourists. People coming to Ohio aren't going to oooh and ahhhh at the gently rolling hills and river valleys in this part of the state.

Unless this proposed theme park were actually on the scale of Universal or Disney - and open year round (unlikely with the cold and snow around here) - I can't see that many people flocking to one particular area in Ohio. If CP and PKI can't draw that many people, with the rest of the attractions around each park, then I highly doubt the projected attendance figures accompanying this proposal for the Dayton area. *** Edited 3/31/2006 4:06:55 PM UTC by oneup***

They could do what the Ohio Turnpike did. They just relocated the Pike a little bit and built two brand new monster bridges over the Cuyahoga Valley if I recall correctly.

It's kind of like what's going on over on the PA Turnpike near Harrisburg. They're building a completely new bridge over the Susquehanna River by moving the pike over a little. Here's a link for any who really care:

http://kci.com/projects/srb/

Ok, so I was close, lol. I did say in my first post that I wasn't sure of which of the rivers it crossed. But I was almost sure that it was 2 lanes. Im sure some people were confused by me saying Great Miami. O well, it's still going to be a mess once they cut the traffic down to 2 lanes.

Driving I-75 would probably still always be better then.. I could just take I-70, to I-75, to I-275 to I-74, which helps me avoid the mess I-71 is going to be... I just have to make sure I'm not driving I-75 at the wrong time, or I'd be getting nowhere!