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US 8,490,549 B2Granted
Tower ride
OwnerWilliam J. Kitcheninventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A tower ride is disclosed with suspended cars mounted on rails that forms track that is a complete double helix path for the car without having to turn the car or switch tracks. The car is suspended from a four truss track, riding on the two bottom rails for stability. Another embodiment is a roller coaster track mounted on a tower.
Claims13
An amusement ride comprising:
- a support tower;
- a track mounted on the support tower having a first bottom rail and a second bottom rail, said bottom rails being substantially parallel to each other;
- a first helical section of the track wherein the first bottom rail is an inner rail mounted on the support tower and the second bottom rail is an outer rail spaced radially outward from the inner rail, wherein the first section of the track is a helix wrapping around at least a portion the tower;
- a second helical section of track mounted on the support tower wherein the second bottom rail is the inner rail and the first bottom rail is the an outer rail spaced radially outward from the inner rail, wherein the second section of the track is a helix wrapping around at least a portion of the tower;
- the first and second sections of track being connected together at a top of the support tower by a first switch back section and at a bottom of the support tower by a second switch back such that a rider carriage moveably mounted on the bottom rails can move on a continuous loop of track on the bottom rails and such that a first side of the rider carriage is facing outward on the first helical section of the track and a second side of the rider carriage is facing outward on the second helical section of the track, the first and second sides of the ride carriage being opposite each other;
- and
- said first switch back section and second switch back section being in a substantially horizontal orientation.
4 more elements
An amusement ride comprising:
- a support tower;
- a track mounted on the support tower having a first bottom rail and a second bottom rail, said bottom rails being substantially parallel to each other;
- a first section of the track being mounted on an exterior of the support tower, the first section of the track having a variety of orientations and inclines
- a second section of the track being mounted on an interior of the support tower, said second section being spiral shaped;
- the first and second sections of the track being connected at a top and bottom of the support tower to form the track into a continuous loop such that a plurality of rider carriages are moveably mounted on the bottom rails can move in a continuous loop on the bottom rails.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.