Physical Setup
The ride was a motion simulator with the cars located under a 70-foot (21.3–m) IMAX Dome screen. Each of the 24 cars (12 per dome) was mounted on three pistons, allowing it to rise, fall and tilt, following the motion on the screen. The cars were arranged on three tiers and were staggered to prevent riders from seeing the other vehicles in the theater. The front section of the cars rose eight feet (2.4 m) out of the "garage" when "flying". The actual range of motion from the simulator base was about two feet (0.6 m) in any direction. The motion and the visual input from the screen images combined to make the riders feel as if they are in a high-speed pursuit.
The ride was actually composed of two IMAX Dome screens with cars arranged around them. The experience of both was identical, but the ride enjoyed a very reliable in-service record as a result. If one screen or "dome" is shut down by a mechanical problem, the other ordinarily remains in service. This increases wait times, but essentially eliminated a complete shutdown of the ride as a whole.
Read more about this topic: Back To The Future: The Ride
Famous quotes containing the word physical:
“Women are to be lifted up to a physical equality with man by placing upon their shoulders equal burdens of labor, equal responsibilities of state-craft; they are to be brought down from their altruistic heights by being released from all obligations of purity, loyalty, self-sacrifice, and made free of the world of passion and self-indulgence, after the model set them by men of low and materialistic ideals.”
—Caroline Fairfield Corbin (b. c. 1835–?)