The Highlander is a

gyro drop tower A drop tower or big drop is a type of amusement ride incorporating a central structure or tower. Drop towers vary in height, passenger capacity, lift type, and brake type. Many are custom-made, although there are some mass-produced designs. Th ...

Hansa-Park Hansa-Park is a seasonal amusement park in Sierksdorf, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany off the Baltic Sea. It was opened on May 15, 1977 under the name Hansaland and renamed Hansa-Park in 1987. It currently spans and includes more than 125 attracti ...

, located in

Sierksdorf Sierksdorf is a municipality in the district of Ostholstein, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, situated on the Bay of Lübeck. The Hansa Park amusement park is located in Sierksdorf. References External links Internet presence of Sierksdorfon ...

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, with a total height of to the top and a fall height of . This made it the world's tallest gyro drop tower and the world's tallest and fastest gyro drop tower with tilting seats at the time of opening. After the 2021 opening of the taller Orlando FreeFall drop tower with a height of , Highlander remains the tallest gyro drop tower in Europe.

Ride

The Highlander has two driving programs: ''Tilt'' and ''Super-Tilt''. The gondola rotates counter-clockwise as it travels upwards. Shortly before reaching the highest position, the seats tilt forward by 30°. Tilted like this, the gondola turns around the tower one more time. If the ''Tilt'' drive program is carried out, the seats tilt back to their normal position before the gondola falls. In the ''Super-Tilt'' drive program, on the other hand, the gondola falls with the seats tilted forward. These are only tilted back on the ground before the safety bar is unlocked.

Technical details

The tower stands on bored piles that reach deep into the ground. The gondola is braked by magnetic brakes, and offers space for 24 people who are secured with shoulder straps during the journey. After a fatal incident at a similar drop tower by the same manufacturer at

ICON Park ICON Park is an entertainment complex in Orlando, Florida. The complex is on 20 acres and has more than 50 attractions including a 400 foot tall (122m) observation wheel, a Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, a Sea Life aquarium, as well as bars, restau ...

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...

in March 2022, where a rider fell from his seat during the ride, Hansa-Park stated that they "can rule out an incident like the one in Florida" since Highlander cannot be started "unless all safety bars have been closed in a defined minimum position". The park added additional seat belts to the ride in advance of the start of the season in April 2022.

Thematic context

The Highlander was opened on April 26, 2019 shortly after the start of the season on April 4, 2019 and at the same time formed the starting signal for the new themed area ''Beautiful Britain'', which is being built around the newly designed classic looping roller coaster Nessie. Its purpose is to introduce its visitors to the world of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

and the Eilean Donan Castle.

Soundtrack

The ''Highlander

Soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack ...

'' was produced in a Scottish style by Andreas and Sebastian Kübler from IMAscore.

References

External links

*
Soundtrack of IMAscore
on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

{{Hansa-Park