71° and Fog
Image
Niagara Falls has a new year-round tourism destination, the Rainbow Air Tourism Center on Acheson Drive.
The gleaming new facility rose from an empty field behind the old Carborundum headquarters over the last 18 months or so. The developers received no government subsidies and succeeded in spite of Niagara Falls City Government which could not even bother to fix the potholes on Acheson Drive prior to opening. Mayor Robert Restaino showed up at the Grand Opening on Friday and acted grateful someone invested $15 million of private funding in a city where they can’t even fix the landscaping at City Hall. Imagine if the road in front of the new Cambria Hotel looked like that.
The facility is a testament to a well-conceived plan with museum space paying homage to the history of aviation in Niagara Falls.
At the grand opening, as the crowd milled around, I had a nice chat with a pilot named Alex who said he trained in Dayton and has stepped up through a few different jobs before accepting his position in Niagara Falls.
Alex and the other pilot expertly maneuver two new Airbus helicopters in a carefully choreographed dance.
I queued up for a ride. Every passenger is weighed and assigned a position. I was second in, passenger side.
Take off was smooth. The views of the river are stunning. I especially liked seeing Navy Island, the Canadian nature preserve.
The new facility is directly behind Niagara Business Center at 1625 Buffalo Ave.
The 30-year helicopter tourism business is a sister operation to Niagara Helicopters in Canada, operated by Helicopter Transport Services. They have invested $15 million in the new building in addition to spending $9 million on two new helicopters.
11 virtual reality simulators imported from Wales cost another $2 million. The VR units use drone footage and allow you to control your flight. I tried and failed to crash into our house.
At full staff, Rainbow Air will have 24 workers for the tourism season
The 7-seat helicopters are be Airbus H-130s which were delivered to the Canadian side where pilots trained.
Rides at full retail are $180 or $140 if you show proof of being from the 716 area code.
Waterbourne Construction coordinated the project from site clearing to finished attraction with breakneck speed, just more than 15 months, erecting a massive prefabricated steel building purchased through Montante Development.
While building permits and inspections were needed along the way, none of the bureaucratic processes that bog down projects supported by public money were in place.
On the outside of the building, the lower portions of the walls are finished in stone from a Kentucky quarry specifically chosen to emulate the Adams Power Plant. The sad, deteriorating Adams transformer building, which could be restored in homage to Nikola Tesla rests adjacent to the new facility.
The idea behind the entire Rainbow Air project is to create a year-round destination where, even when visitors aren’t taking a chopper ride they can experience virtual reality and study historical displays.
The finished facility also has a retail store as well as flexible space for groups and enough to do inside and out to accommodate bus tours. More information is available at https://www.rainbowairinc.com/
