Construction of Great America's Sky Whirl

This page may have already been pointed out, but I found an interesting site documenting the construction of the Sky Whirl/Tripple Wheel at Great America. I believe it's the one in California.

http://americas.best.vwh.net/mga/skywhirl002.html

Too cool! Thanks!

When I worked there, it was probably, after the Whizzer, the coolest ride to operate.

"I go out at 3 o' clock for a quart of milk and come home to my son treating his body like an amusement park!" - Estelle Costanza

Yep, it is the one in California. I can tell because the area around SFGAm is (relatively) flat but on page 16 and page 5 you can see "foothills" - something that is _not_ around SFGAm.

And orchards...which is cool because now the place is smack-dab in the middle-o silicon central.

"I go out at 3 o' clock for a quart of milk and come home to my son treating his body like an amusement park!" - Estelle Costanza

Dayum!!! that place looked barren back then. Now it is populated by Intel and friends....

Fate is the path of least resistance.

Too bad what looks like a great ride is still up for sale. I'm surprised ITAL has not given up by now.

Perhaps someone in Las Vegas will buy it and build a resort around it... ;)

"I go out at 3 o' clock for a quart of milk and come home to my son treating his body like an amusement park!" - Estelle Costanza

The ITAL ad is no longer valid. Both Great America's have scrapped their triple wheels.

For shame.

Aww man, they could have spliced both of them together and called it the Hydra...could even throw in some Polyps around there and so a protozoa theme... ;)

Seriously though, the Triple Wheels were really unique rides. Sure they inspired gastric upheavals...but they were great to watch.

"I go out at 3 o' clock for a quart of milk and come home to my son treating his body like an amusement park!" - Estelle Costanza

What a truly beautiful engineering marvel! It's a total shame that both parks scrapped this ride. I would love to have ridden it. Out of curiosity, what took the place of the Sky Whirl at both parks?

I survived a Japanese typhoon and the Togo flat ride of death!!!!!!

Vekoma inverted boomerangs. While PGA got a standard Invertigo model, SFGAm got a Giant Inverted Boomerang.

-Nate

That is very saddening to hear.

All the Intamin Multiple-Wheel Ferris Wheels are very beautiful and great eye-candy. To bad not very many of them are left, in the USA anyway.