Delirium is the name of three Frisbee rides located at three

Cedar Fair Cedar Fair, L.P., formally Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, is a publicly traded master limited partnership headquartered at its Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. The company owns and operates eleven amusement parks, nine included-w ...

parks –

California's Great America California's Great America, often shortened to Great America, is a amusement park located in Santa Clara, California. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, it originally opened in 1976 as one of two parks built by the Marriott Corporation. Califor ...

Kings Island Kings Island is a amusement park located northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, United States. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, the park first opened in 1972 by the Taft Broadcasting Company. It was part of a larger effort to move and expan ...

, and

Kings Dominion Kings Dominion is an amusement park located in Doswell, Virginia, north of Richmond, Virginia, Richmond and south of Washington, D.C. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, the park opened to the public on May 3, 1975, and features more than 60 ri ...

. The installation at California’s Great America, the smallest of the three, was designed by

Chance Rides Chance Rides Manufacturing is a roller coaster and amusement ride manufacturer. The company was formed on May 16, 2002, when the former Chance Industries Inc. emerged from bankruptcy. The main office and manufacturing facility are located in Wic ...

and opened in 2002. The installation at Kings Island was designed by

HUSS Park Attractions HUSS Park Attractions (legal name: Huss Park Attractions GmbH) is a company that specializes in developing and manufacturing amusement rides at a factory in Budapest, Hungary. History of the original Huss Company HUSS Maschinenfabrik was a Ge ...

and opened on April 12, 2003, as the largest Frisbee ride of its kind in the world. The record-setting ride is able to swing 50 passengers up to reaching a height of . Mondial manufactured the version of Delirium at Kings Dominion, which opened in 2016. It accommodates up to 40 passengers, reaches a top speed of , and swings to a maximum height of .

History

Throughout the 1990s,

roller coaster A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are o ...

popularity soared as the number of roller coasters in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

increased from roughly 165 to over 200 by the end of the decade. As the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

economy slowed in 2001, however, many parks began to turn to more cost-effective thrill rides that weren't roller coasters, also known as "flat rides". Paramount's Great America introduced their Delirium ride, designed by KMG and built by Chance Rides, in 2002. It was the first Frisbee-style ride built in North America, and spun it's 32 riders at 11 RPM while swinging them 180 degrees to a height of . Paramount's Kings Island decided to test the waters with larger-scale flat rides in 2002, when they introduced a Giant Top Spin ride manufactured by HUSS Park Attractions. HUSS Park Attractions (previously known as Huss Maschinenfabrik) spent most of its existence since the late 1970s creating small and mid-size

flat ride Amusement rides, sometimes called carnival rides, are mechanical devices or structures that move people especially kids to create fun and enjoyment. Rides are often perceived by many as being scary or more dangerous than they actually are. This ...

s for

traveling carnival A traveling carnival (US English), usually simply called a carnival, or travelling funfair (UK English), is an amusement show that may be made up of amusement rides, food vendors, merchandise vendors, games of chance and skill, thrill acts, ...

s and small

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

s, but as the company evolved, they started developing rides that were bigger and accommodated larger numbers of riders. Following the success of the Giant Top Spin, originally known as Tomb Raider: The Ride, the park worked with HUSS to open another flat ride the following year in Kings Island's Action Zone. This time, HUSS modified their Frisbee design, first introduced in 1994, to create its first Giant Frisbee version that increased the capacity to 50 passengers, extended the pendulum arm to , and increased the swing angle to 120 degrees. Riders could now be lifted to a height of off the ground reaching speeds up to and experiencing a positive

g-force The gravitational force equivalent, or, more commonly, g-force, is a measurement of the type of force per unit mass – typically acceleration – that causes a perception of weight, with a g-force of 1 g (not gram in mass measure ...

of up to 4.5 g. Kings Dominion purchased a smaller Frisbee design from Mondial, also naming it Delirium, which was added in 2016 on the former site of

Shockwave In physics, a shock wave (also spelled shockwave), or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a me ...

. It also swings in a

pendulum A pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward the ...

motion while

rotating Rotation, or spin, is the circular movement of an object around a '' central axis''. A two-dimensional rotating object has only one possible central axis and can rotate in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. A three-dimensional ...

clockwise. Although the structure of the ride is only tall, riders reach a height of above ground. The ride seats a maximum of 40 riders propelled back and forth up to at an arc of 120 degrees.

Ride experience

The beginning of the line queue is positioned close to one side of the attraction, so that when the ride is in motion, the circular gondola appears to just miss the overhead canvas that protects from falling objects. As a result, a strong breeze is felt by guests waiting in line. Riders are later arranged into two groups of 25 before entering the final section of the line queue. The restraints that secure riders are over the shoulder. The ride begins with a hissing sound of air, and the metal platform separates into eight pie-shaped wedges as it retracts away from the gondola. Into the first swing, the gondola immediately begins rotating slowly as each consecutive swing intensifies. The rotation allows riders' experience to change throughout the entire ride, and at each swing's peak, a brief floating sensation can be felt. Within thirty seconds, the pendulum reaches its maximum arc of 240 degrees. As the ride cycle nears the end, the pendulum slows to a stop nearly as fast as it accelerated in the beginning. Within a few swings, the gondola moves into a controlled stop as the loading platform lifts back into place.

References

External links

Official ''Delirium'' page
{{Kings Dominion Amusement rides manufactured by HUSS Park Attractions Amusement rides manufactured by Mondial Pendulum rides Kings Island Kings Dominion Cedar Fair attractions