Sky Screamer was a first-generation

Intamin Intamin Amusement Rides is a design and manufacturing company in Schaan, Liechtenstein. It is best known for creating thrill rides and roller coasters worldwide. The Intamin brand name is a syllabic abbreviation for "international amusement ins ...

Freefall ride at

Six Flags AstroWorld Six Flags AstroWorld, also known simply as AstroWorld, was a seasonally operated amusement park in Houston, Texas. Owned and operated by Six Flags, the park was situated between Kirby Drive and Fannin Street, directly south of I-610. The park o ...

in Houston, Texas. Opening in 1983, the ride was closed and dismantled in the late 1990s. Sky Screamer consisted of a tower with a horizontal braking runout. It featured eight

gondolas The gondola (, ; vec, góndoła ) is a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian lagoon. It is typically propelled by a gondolier, who uses a rowing oar, which is not fastened to the hull ...

, each holding four riders.

Description

The gondola used one set of wheels to go up the lift and down the drop (four large wheels at each back corner) However, it used a second set of wheels in the transfer and loading and unloading area of the ride. These were smaller rollers located on the bottom of the gondola. The ride lifted gondola up through a shaft in the tower's center by a

lift chain A lift hill, or chain hill, is an upward-sloping section of track on a roller coaster on which the roller coaster train is mechanically lifted to an elevated point or peak in the track. Upon reaching the peak, the train is then propelled from ...

. Once at the top, the gondola was disengaged from the lift chain and pushed forward into the drop position. After the sounding of the

klaxon A horn is a sound-making device that can be equipped to motor vehicles, buses, bicycles, trains, trams (otherwise known as streetcars in North America), and other types of vehicles. The sound made usually resembles a "honk" (older vehicles) or a ...

, the gondola was released into

freefall In Newtonian physics, free fall is any motion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it. In the context of general relativity, where gravitation is reduced to a space-time curvature, a body in free fall has no force acting on it. ...

. The freefall drop into the horizontal curve applied a

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 4.5 on the riders. A pair of

guide rail A guide rail is a device or mechanism to direct products, vehicles or other objects through a channel, conveyor, roadway or rail system. Several types of guide rails exist and may be associated with: * Factory or production line conveyors * Pow ...

s ran downward along the outside of the Sky Screamer tower before curving into the horizontal braking runout.

Modifications

In late 1983, 50% more anti-rollback devices were installed on Sky Screamer. The additional anti-rollbacks were staggered on each side of the lift. These modifications were intended to improve stopping ability in wet conditions and were a response to an accident on a similar ride at a different park. In 1986, the Sky Screamer "G-Block" was moved farther down the horizontal braking runout. The end of "H-Block" was extended to the beginning of the station conveyors in 1994. Sky Screamer was dismantled sometime after 1997.

References

{{Six Flags AstroWorld 1990s disestablishments in Texas Six Flags AstroWorld