Who made Rotors before Chance?
This is probably sort of a strange question, but last night I was going through some of my old books and ran across my "Kennywood Memories" one. I paged through it and noticed a picture of their original Rotor which appeared sometime in the 1950's (can't remember the exact year offhand). This Rotor was one of those "arena-style" ones with the multiple observation platforms. Now, my question is... who made these Rotors? The picture in the Kennywood book showed the ride facade with the words "Rotor-Dromes Ltd. presents the World's Greatest Sensation: The Rotor". Was Rotor-Dromes a company that made only Rotors, or was it a "broker" that just distributed the ride while another company made them? I know Chance made them from the 70's through the 90's (they have since stopped production on them and I believe 37 or so were made during its run)..... but just had some curiosity as to who designed the original model. I believe CP had one of these arena-style Rotors back in the 60's as from the pix I have seen, it stood next to the Coliseum on the current site of Kiddy Kingdom. Conneaut Lake also had one called the Hell Hole through 1992. They were MUCH more intense than the Chance models were.
Thanks for any assistance-
ProgRay (who never really thought the wedgie a Rotor seemed to give riders was one of the "world's greatest sensations")
According to the MORE KENNYWOOD MEMORIES book, their first Rotor was introduced in 1955.
It was leased from Anglo Rotor Corporation, Ltd., London, England. The first ride was built in Germany in 1949 by Ernest Hoffmeister who recieved 10% loyalty from the ride.
The ride would hold 30 passengers and had enough room for 300 spectators.
An additional note: It was the first imported ride to Kennywood.
Euclid Beach and Cedar Point did have these models as well, I think Cedar switched theirs for a Chance later on.
Chance stopped producing them in 1999.
*** This post was edited by john peck on 2/20/2002. ***
john peck said:
"According to the MORE KENNYWOOD MEMORIES book, the first Rotor was introduced in 1955.According to LAUGH YOUR TROUBLES AWAY, Riverview's Rotor was installed in 1952. I do not know who the manufacturer was.
Mike
-------------
Laugh your troubles away at Riverview, the world's largest amusement park.
ProgRay (who hopes not to be called "Rotor Man" by asking this question!)
You must be logged in to post
