Wednesday 17 September 2014

History of the Chair-O-Planes

Amusement rides have thrilled people for many years and have been a thriller which has alleviated the gloom of life and given people a little excitement so that they can live their lives better and not in a stupor where they go through the regular cycle of home and work. It gives you a little bit of change from the regular routine of life and something which will keep you engaged. They are a primary feature of amusement parks and tend to spice things up a little bit. The history of amusement rides is also very rich as shown by the rest of this article.

The Chair-O-Planes ride, which is sometimes referred to as a Swing Carousel or Wave Swinger, is a fairground ride that is a variant on the carousel where the chairs are suspended on chains from the rotating top of the carousel. Whilst the rotation speed of Chair-O-Planes increases, the chairs are thrown outwards by centrifugal force. With some types of the ride, particularly on the Wave Swingers, the rotating top of the carousel also tilts a little, so there are other variations of motion.

Having come to a truce with Germany, it was from this point as well as America, numerous new rides in the 1920s arose. The forerunner of modern thrill rides was the Whip which was erected in the USA by W.F. Mangels Co of Coney Island. A few examples of this actually came across the pond to the UK, but the earlier versions of the ride were more to do with the Chair-O-Planes. Some of these rides were developed in England, but the vast majority were imported from Germany. Some of those were from Bohmann of Gotha, Saxony. The origins of the ride is unclear. However, this ride was there at the earliest amusement parks. In Idora Park in Oakland, California, in 1908, the ride was known as the Flying Swing, although there are some similarities with the ride being discussed in this article.

Loudoun Castle Theme Park in Scotland makes the valid claim that its moon shaped ride is 'The Plough', which is largest Chair-O-Plane in the world. The plough was called Apollo 14 and was under the ownership of the Bembom dynasty, which operated at the Ponypark Slagharen in Holland during the late 1970s. When it moved to Dreamland in England (known as 'Bembom Brothers'), it was recalibrated into a Chair-O-Plane and named it the Heatwave. At a point later on than this, Henk Bembom moved Heatwave to his newly built park Loudoun Castle, which was subsequently renamed The Plough and painted a vivid green colour.

The majority of the swing carousel rides in North America are situated at amusement parks. They are predominantly made by Zierer (where the ride is known as the Wave swinger), although a small fraction are made by Bertazzon (where the ride was entitled the Swing Carousel) or Zamperla (the ride is called Flying Carousel). If you would like to find out more please visit the link:

http://www.bertazzon-america.com/