Drop tower
A free-fall tower (also called Free Fall Tower ) is an amusement ride in amusement parks and carnivals. It consists primarily of a tower on which a cabin is pulled up with passengers. Once at the top, can you pass the cabin into free fall until it is caught at the foot of the tower of a braking device, usually eddy current brakes.
Many of these towers, especially, however, are on German folk festivals no real free-fall towers, since the passenger carrier falls never free but always connected via steel cables to the tower remains. These towers are often called anyway " drop tower ", but the correct term is less common vertical travel.
Some free-fall towers have the peculiarity that before extraction, the seats are hydraulically tilted forward. An example of this is "The High Fall " at Movie Park Germany, having its seats after the extraction a tilt angle of 15 °.
Implementations and variants
Gyro - drop tower
A variant of the free-fall tower is called the gyro- drop tower. The passenger carrier of these towers are circular and rotate during the ascent to the tower. "Scream" at Heide Park in Soltau, with a total height of 103 meters and a height of 71 meters ( 43m drop distance and braking distance 28m ) of the largest gyro - drop tower in the world.
Giant Drop
→ Main article: Giant Drop
A Giant Drop is the name for a type commonly built drop tower manufacturer Intamin / Ride Trade.
On the towers there are several, usually four lanes with independently operating gondolas for four people. Partially different gondola types are implemented on a system, so there is the ride in sitting, standing, with or without ground under your feet, combined with the tilting mechanism. When you lift the passenger carrier is pulled by a pickup, up to the top position at the top of the tower. There he is unlatched and falls on rails in a magnetic brake system. Since it is a permanent magnet system for these special brakes, a loss is technically impossible even in the absence of power.
With approximately 127 m is the simple " Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom" -called free-fall tower in the American Six Flags Magic Mountain, the highest in the world.
Mobile freefall tower
2013, the Austrian manufacturer Funtime built the highest mobile freefall tower 80m. The Skyfall is built without large mobile crane. It is operated by the German showman Michael Goetzke under Skyfall and celebrates Oktoberfest 2013 premiere.
Selection of known rides
- Anubis Free Fall Tower at Holiday Park Hassloch, model Giant Drop by Intamin / Ride Trade
- Scream at Heide Park in Soltau ( Gyro - Drop)
- The High Fall Movie Park Germany ( floorless Tilting Gyro Drop)
- Space Vertigo Gardaland, Italy