Afterburner (amusement ride)
Afterburner is a ride model from the Dutch manufacturer KMG. It is a type of swing related to the ship swing and frisbee . A long swing arm is suspended from a construction made up of four supports. Up to eight passenger carriers are rotatably mounted at the end of the arm. The swing drive comes from the axis of the suspension, which means that the Afterburner does not swing freely. The passengers are secured on the seats by shoulder straps. The line of sight goes to the axis of rotation, the legs hang freely. Before the swing starts, the floor is lowered under the passenger carriers. The arm can swing up to an angle of 120 ° and reaches a height of up to 22 meters. The passenger carrier ring can rotate at up to 15 revolutions per minute. In the stop position, while the podium is raised, the gondola rim rotates at up to 2 revolutions per minute. This slow rotation in the holding position is called "advancing".
Afterburner is available from the manufacturer KMG in different versions. The original store is transportable on two transports and has six passenger carriers for four people each. This variant is also available in a stationary version. Another stationary variation has eight passenger carriers.
In the meantime there is also a variant in which pelvic bars are used as a restraint system instead of shoulder bars. In an afterburner, this restraint device was installed for the first time in the stationary system it , which is located in the American amusement park Morey's Piers . According to the manufacturer, this should intensify the driving experience. KMG has recently started offering the smaller afterburner variant Freak Out with structurally identical pelvic brackets for portable systems.
journey
The Afterburner has a total of 3 swing modes: 15%, 40% and 100% drive power. The pendulum is driven to the following swings: ~ 35 °, ~ 50 ° and ~ 120 °, depending on the load, wind and other environmental variables. The maximum power of the pendulum drive of 100% or 120 ° is maintained by the control for 20 seconds after reaching; which corresponds to about 3–4 full swings (22 meters at the highest nacelle position). A fall-back to 40% mode then takes place in terms of control. These modes can be controlled from the remote via buttons. Furthermore, the speed of rotation of the nacelle rim is controlled from there via a potentiometer.
Control panel of the Afterburner "FREE-STYLE" of the Munich showman company Agtsch. Year of construction 1999. This model can only turn the gondola ring counterclockwise and has a manual control. In the picture you can see the remote that was converted by the operator (potentiometer for the nacelle rotation speed offset).
Some models are able to reverse the direction of travel of the gondola. A well-known traveling model with this feature is "Project 1" - operated by the showman Boos (Magdeburg). The operator advertises with a right and left turn on his website.
Ohio State Fare Accident 2017
On July 26, 2017, there was an accident with the Afterburner Fireball amusement ride in Columbus , in which one man died and seven other people were injured. In this accident, a gondola of the 18-year-old ride broke off the gondola rim. After an investigation, a representative from the manufacturer KMG stated that severe corrosion was the cause of the accident.
Freak out
As a freak out , KMG sells a smaller transportable variant with only four passenger carriers and only one transport. In contrast to the Afterburner, the gondola does not swing lengthways towards the structure, but over the heads of the audience. The German premiere of this ride took place with X-Factor from Deinert at the Easter fair 2004 in Hagen .
XXL
The significantly larger XXL version also only has four passenger carriers for five people, but can swing up to 40 meters and a speed of 100 km / h. Nevertheless, the shop only occupies a small area of around 18 × 14 meters. Three transports are necessary to move. The premiere of XXL took place in 2006 with the showman Kroon's shop at the Easter fair in Enschede .
The Munich showman Sebastian Küchenmeister celebrated its premiere in 2011 at the Düsseldorf Rheinkirmes with his XXL called Konga with a jungle theme.
other producers
The Italian company Technical Park sells a similar ride under the name Street Fighter . In addition to a transportable, eleven-meter-high version with 18-meter swing height and four passenger carriers for four people each, Technical Park also supplies a stationary version with a round passenger carrier facing outwards for 24 people. The company claims to have already sold over 40 of these systems.
Due to the great success, other similar rides are also produced by other manufacturers.
stationary Afterburner Vortex for 32 people in Thorpe Park
Freak Out X-Factor from Deinert at the Easter fair 2004 in Hagen
Column foundation at the stationary afterburner The Eagles Claw in the Lightwater Valley
literature
Web links
- Afterburner on the KMG company website
- Freak Out on the KMG company website
- XXL on the KMG company website
- Street Fighter on the company homepage of Technical Park ( Memento from October 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- Website of the showman Boos for Project 1
- Video of the afterburner FREE-STYLE by the Munich showman Agtsch
swell
- ↑ DER SPIEGEL: Ohio in the USA: 18-year-old dies in an accident at a fair - DER SPIEGEL - Panorama. Retrieved July 8, 2020 .
- ↑ Janet DiGiacomo CNN: Deadly accident at Ohio State Fair caused by corrosion, says ride maker. Retrieved July 8, 2020 .