The Paratrooper, also known as the "Parachute Ride" or "Umbrella Ride", is a type of

fairground 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 ...

. It is a ride where seats suspended below a wheel rotate at an angle. The seats are free to rock sideways and swing out under

centrifugal force In Newtonian mechanics, the centrifugal force is an inertial force (also called a "fictitious" or "pseudo" force) that appears to act on all objects when viewed in a rotating frame of reference. It is directed away from an axis which is paralle ...

as the wheel rotates. Invariably, the seats on the Paratrooper ride have a round shaped umbrella or other shaped canopy above the seats. In contrast to modern thrill rides, the Paratrooper is a ride suitable for almost all ages. Most Paratrooper rides require the rider to be at least 36 inches (91.44 cm) tall to be accompanied by an adult, and over 48 inches (121.92 cm) to ride alone. Older Paratrooper rides have a rotating wheel which is permanently raised, which has the disadvantage that riders can only load two at a time as each seat is brought to hang vertically at the lowest point of the wheel. Some models have a lower platform that's slightly raised on the ends that could permit the loading of up to three seats at a time. Most of these rides were made by the manufacturing companies Bennett, Watkins or

Hrubetz Frank Hrubetz & Co., Inc. was an American manufacturer of amusement park flat rides. Established in 1939, the company was located near the Salem, Oregon airport. It sold both trailer-mounted and permanent model rides to theme parks throughout the wo ...

. The German manufacturer Heintz-Fahtze also made larger models of the Paratrooper under the name of the Twister. Modern Paratrooper rides use a

hydraulic Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counter ...

lifting piston to raise the wheel to their riding angle while spinning the seats. In its lowered position, all the seats hang vertically near the ground and can be loaded simultaneously. The above manufacturers also made these types and the height requirements to ride them remain the same.

Variations

The Force 10 is a ride made by

Tivoli Enterprises Tivoli Enterprises was a British company manufacturing amusement rides, located in Canterbury. *The company's status is listed as "dissolved". *It is known for building thrilling amusement rides. *Born in England, this company was started b ...

that features some of the same motion of the Paratrooper. The Star Trooper is a variant created by Dartron Industries that features seats facing both ways. The Star Trooper's initial design eventually evolved into the

Cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhang ...

, also made by Dartron Industries. The same seats for this ride are used in the Swift-O-Plane and the same height requirement is the same as

Enterprise Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to: Business and economics Brands and enterprises * Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company * Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company * Enterprise ...

. In the 1980s, British amusement manufacturer David Ward developed the Super Trooper, of which the wheel rises horizontally up a central column. Once at the top, the wheel slants up to 45 degrees in either direction. He built two 12-seat versions and a 10-seat version. In 2018, PWS Rides Ltd. acquired the plans from Ward to build a new version with the first example due to be delivered in early 2019.

References

{{Amusement rides Amusement rides