Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Amusement Authority blog! The holiday season is upon us! It's time to start thinking about what's on your shopping list. The easiest way to avoid all the inconveniences of holiday shopping lines and crowds is to order your gifts online. But what does this have to do with this blog? Well, why not help support this site and get your holiday shopping done at the same time? I would really appreciate it if you can help support this site by using our Amazon.com search box. It's simple to use: just type the name of the product you are looking for in the Amazon.com search box and it will automatically take you to the Amazon website of the product. Simply order the gift as normal and a (tiny) fraction of what you spend will go to this site. Thanks for reading and have a good holiday weekend!

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All About G-Forces

           A roller coaster designer’s main goal is to produce as many safe accelerations on the rider’s body as possible. If you're travelling at a certain speed, and not shifting, you can't feel it, just like you can’t feel the rotation of the Earth, despite the large rate at which we are spinning. Humans can't feel speed; we can only feel or sense acceleration.
           G loading is expressed as a ratio of the force developed in changing speed or direction relative to the force felt due to the earth’s gravity. The smaller the curve radius and the higher the speed, the higher the g force. Thus, a 2g force on a 100 pound body causes it to weigh 200 pounds. Race car drivers in the Indianapolis 500 are subjected to more than 3g’s in the corners and there are loop coasters that subject passengers to as much as 5g’s.

Not all g forces increase the weight of the passenger. As a vehicle goes over the top of a hill the load on the passenger becomes less than earth’s gravity and, in the extreme, could throw an unrestrained passenger out of the car. Some coasters do subject passengers to slightly negative g’s which cause them to raise off their seats and become “weightless” for a short period. This is often a desirable feature. Coasters with numerous airtime moments often rank among the best in the world.

Restraint design is directly affected by the g-forces felt during the ride. ASTM standards recommend types of restraints based on the range of g-forces. If all rides were geared to the weakest among the population, there would be no rides. The more safe accelerations on a ride the better.

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Cedar Point Police Department Video

Classic video of the Cedar Point Police Department.

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S&S Worldwide's new thrill ride

Blooloop recently posted a fantastic interview with a vice president from S&S Worldwide. What really caught my mention was the talk of a new ride described as a thrill version of the Free Fly coaster, which will offer a new sensation to the industry, and be exclusive to S&S. Here are the known facts directly from the article:

• ...we have a new concept but you will not see it out in the open.
• It is a thrill version of our Free Fly “family” coaster, capable of a truly unique ride sensation never before experienced and exclusive to S&S...
• ...we’ve patented the mechanical piece that creates the ride experience. 
• We vetted the idea with significant people in the industry last year at IAAPA and over the year.
• ...a new product, especially one of the caliber we are introducing, S&S is making a statement: beyond being creative...
• ...we have partnered with an engineering firm in Southern California that specializes in aerospace and government contracts, and have additional tools and engineering resources we don’t.  This union has created a feasibility study and product analysis I doubt has ever been done before. 
• ...decision to bring in the best talent, worldwide, to create, engineer and validate not only the ride, but also the effects the ride experience has on the human body. 
• ...the ride concept, which has a “4th-dimension type ride experience” but at half the cost of a 4D coaster, is extreme and thrilling beyond previous experience...

What really got my attention from the above information was the fact they have already patented the concept. Knowing this, I scoured the internet to try and find this patent. Well, I didn't find any new patents related to S&S Worldwide or any of their engineers but this didn't exactly surprise me because it sounds like they want to keep this under wraps. 

However, after an extensive search, I believe I found the patent and the type of ride system they could be talking about here. It doesn't have a name that I know of at this point so I am going to dub it "the gyro-coaster."  

The seat assembly is capable of fully rotating about a first axis, second axis, and third axis independent of the track system. The rotation can be free or controlled. Each individual vehcile assembly could have a different degree of motion than the other vehicle assemblies. The launch tower concept looks pretty cool too!

 

 

Here's the evidence that leads me to believe this is the ride we are looking for.

• The patent was filed in 2009. S&S discussed the idea at the IAPPA show in 2010, thus the timeline works out and makes sense.
  
• The patent attorney's office is in Salt Lake City, Utah, not far from S&S headquarters.
• The inventor resides in Southern California (and presumably works for the hired engineering firm). I couldn't find any other information on the inventor, which is odd.
  
• When S&S Arrow filed the patent for the 4d coaster they used James Sonntag as their patent attorney, the same person who shows up on this new patent. 

Is this all just coincidence? I have no idea if it actually is but the evidence would lead me to believe we are looking at new ride concepts from S&S Worldwide. You can see why they would bring in another firm to do analysis- some pretty complicated dynamics there! If this is true, I am really excited by this design concept. The possibilities are endless; the human body being the major limiting factor. What are your thoughts?


How to Design a Coaster

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Dinosaur Ride Layout

Here's a few overhead pictures of the layout for Dinosaur at Disney's Animal Kingdom. I believe the layout is the exact same as the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland.

What Would Walt Do?

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Sneak Peak at Upcoming Project

I'd like to apologize for not posting anything substantial lately. I have been busy writing an article for Coaster Critic as well as working on a project which I will share the details on in due time. For now, here is a little sneak peek preview.

 Can you guess what it is?

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Committee on Amusement Rides and Devices to Meet in Arizona

ASTM Committee F24 on Amusement Rides and Devices to Meet in Scottsdale , Arizona 

Over 150 Global Safety Experts Anticipated

 

ASTM International Committee F24 on Amusement Rides and Devices, which produces global safety standards for the amusement industry, will be holding three days of meetings from Oct. 13-15, 2011 at the Valley Ho Hotel in Scottsdale , Arizona . Approximately 50 separate meetings will be held, each one focusing on a specific safety element of the amusement industry. Areas that are covered include, but are not limited to, ride design, operations, and maintenance. Meetings are open to both members and non-members of ASTM and registration is available at http://www.astm.org/on the ASTM F24 Committee site at http://www.astm.org/COMMIT/COMMITTEE/F24.htm.

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