What does it take to bring a world-class attraction to life?
From blue sky strategy to development and delivery, bringing theme park attractions to life is a dance between imagination and engineering rigor. On any given day, our engineers bridge creative intent with reliable technology, translate story into motion, and turn constraints into opportunities. The outcome? Guests walking off the attractions knowing they will never forget the adventure they went on.
In this behind-the-scenes look, our team shares how a project moves from concept to opening day.
For our Falcon’s Attractions team, some mornings start with system schematics. Others end on the ride platform at 2 a.m., tuning motion profiles until the experience feels “just right.” Being adaptable is the most important skill to have, when being a problem-solver becomes critical.
Hands-on engineering, wherever the project needs it.
Our Staff Mechanical Engineer Rachel Kimball thrives in the flux. Depending on timing, she can be in design, project engineering, purchasing support, assembly, process optimization, or installation troubleshooting. Whatever helps the project move forward, that’s where she is. It’s a wide lens and a narrow focus, all at once.
Rachel Kimball
Staff Mechanical Engineer
From concept to show time. For our Senior Manager, Design and Engineering Lauren Riley, her days track the arc of a ride’s lifecycle. Early on, she matches ride systems to creative intent, where she translates ideas into feasible technologies. Midway, she turns concepts into visuals through show programming, collaborating closely with clients to make their vision tangible. Later, it’s technical refinement, testing, and then on-site show programming to hand over a finished experience that guests can’t wait to ride.
“We may be matching ride systems to a creative concept, then later bringing client ideas to life visually, and eventually handing guests the keys to enjoy what we created.” – Lauren
Lauren Riley
Senior Manager, Design & Engineering
Supporting the whole operation.
For Dave Mauck, President of Falcon’s Attractions, the job starts with responsibility to the business and ends with responsibility to the team. That includes overseeing business development, finance, contracts, engineering execution, delivery commitments, spares, and in-service support. Essentially, the job is to remove obstacles, so engineers and technicians have the tools and resources they need. “I’m really working to ensure that we deliver as a business – to our customers and shareholders,” he says. The goal: keep momentum steady and outcomes predictable.
Dave Mauck
President of Falcon’s Attractions
How Ride Vehicles Come to Life
At the heart of every attraction is a ride system, whose creative identity is wrapped around precise motion and control systems.
From creative intent to engineering reality.
Design begins with bridging a client’s concept and the right technology. The vehicle’s “skin” (fiberglass, form factor, colors) needs to match the creative world it inhabits. Then the motion system must move guests in ways that deliver the intended experience.
Axes, speed, and the secret ingredient: acceleration.
What looks fast isn’t always what feels fast. Engineers decide how many axes of motion the vehicle needs, what speed ranges make sense, and crucially, what accelerations, decelerations, and motion profiles deliver the emotional beats of the story. Often, it’s the “push and pull” of forces, not raw speed, that creates the motion.
Translating language.
Teams convert creative terms (soar, surge, float, snap, drift) into technical parameters (pitch rates, jerk limits, velocity profiles, force envelopes). Feasibility isn’t about saying no. It’s about knowing which yes will still be safe, repeatable, and magical.
The Hand-Off: When Guests Take Over
Every project culminates the same way: after months (or years) of design, programming, and tuning, the team hands the experience to the park and to the guests. To our team, that hand-off is a quiet celebration. The ride becomes thousands of personal stories, one train or vehicle at a time.
And that’s the best part. Because for engineers, the measure of success is simple: did the ride make you feel something you’ll want to feel again? That is what constantly gets our team excited for our next big idea.
