Freefall (attraction)

Concept and operation

Attraction has the general shape of L majusucule and provides a short but very intense feeling. The fall lasts hardly more than two seconds and half.

The passengers settle in a vehicle of four places. After the installation of harnai, the nacelle moves back to join the cage of ascencor. The vehicle shows quickly with a 27 m height in top of the tower but arrived in top it advances slowly towards the vacuum. The passengers are then released and fall 26 m, almost with the foot of attraction. The vehicle is inclined during the fall and approaches the horizontal position. Once returned in bottom, the vehicle, by a complex mechanism, finds the driving position. The vehicle returns finally to the platform of input/output and the passengers can leave.

Improvement

In 1984, an accident occurred on the freefall The Edge of Six Flags Great America. A cable broke and there was no enough powerful security system to stop the vehicle. The vehicle ran up against another vehicle which waited to be to go up to the ascencor. In spite of the public belief and certain rumor, no death was to regret in the accident but the young passengers were brought to the hospital for commotions.

In order to prevent that this problem does not occur again, Intanim doubled the systems of emergency brakes on the lathe and reduces the number of nacelles. The attraction of The Edge reopened the accident shortly after but the marks of the accident moved away the visitors from the attraction which has to close. Attraction was dismounted the following year and increase in Rocky Point Park Recreation under the generic name of Freefall before being moved with Geagua Lake in the Ohio and was renamed Mr. Hyde' S Nasty Fall . The latter was destroyed in 2006.

Decline

In 1995, the park Paramount' S Great America opened an attraction of the type Tour of fall, the Drop Zone Stunt Tower , a version improved of the freefall. This attraction was twice higher than the versions of first generation. There the park had this year a fall of free and a tower of fall but it was only for only one year. The papularity of the tower of fall Drop Zone made that the park closed the freefall as of the end of the season 1995. Then of many parks replaced their version of freefall by turn of fall.

Attractions of this type

The majority of the parks having a freefall replaced them by turns of falls. It still remains:

Demon Drop with Cedar Not (closing envisaged)
Wildcatter with Six Flags Over Texas
Freefall with Six Flags Magic Mountain (closing envisaged)
one with the park Toshimean (Japan)
one with the park Central Park (Japan)

In December 2006, one could still use two additional freefalls:

with Six Flags Great Adventure
with Six Flags Over Georgia

In 2004, the park Loudoun Castle had required an authorization for the construction of a freefall. But the put authorization too much time to be granted and in order to open an attraction for the season 2005, the park renonça with the freefall. Ironically, new attraction 2007 is a tower of fall of the type Double Shot conceived by S&S Power.

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