The Flying Cars was a unique attraction at Riverview Park in Chicago, Illinois.
The Flying Cars had a motorized barrel that would spin. The barrel had a track inside for the cars to ride freewheeling. The cars were held onto the drum by a rail and floating clamp system. As the drum would spin, the 1 person cars would follow the track and eventually begin to go upside down. The drum steadily increases its speed and the cars let it roll beneath their wheels as they follow the track. The cars' brakes are then applied causing them to quickly accelerate up to the speed of the drum's surface which is around 30 mph. The operator of Flying Cars would spin the drum for two minutes and then release the brakes causing the cars to come to a complete stop while the drum also slows to a halt. Though there were no accidents or injuries on The Flying Cars, the ride closed due to safety concerns.
Famous quotes containing the words flying and/or cars:
“No throne exists that has a right to exist, and no symbol of it, flying from any flagstaff, is righteously entitled to wear any device but the skull and crossbones of that kindred industry which differs from royalty only businesswise-merely as retail differs from wholesale.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“When, at rare intervals, some thought visits one, as perchance he is walking on a railroad, then, indeed, the cars go by without his hearing them. But soon, by some inexorable law, our life goes by and the cars return.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)