Orbiter (ride)

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At night time, an Orbiter in full motion, is a bewildering blur of lights.

In daylight, it is a little easier to see how the cars are arranged.

The Orbiter is a fairground ride invented by Richard Woolls in 1976.

It has a number of articulated arms radiating from a central rotating vertial axis. Each arm supports a cluster of cars, which are lifted through 90° into the horizontal position once the ride is spinning. At the same time, each cluster of cars rotates around its arm's axis.

1 Some Carnivals/Amusement Parks With these Rides
2 Trivia
3 References
4 Official Manufacturer Site

[edit] Some Carnivals/Amusement Parks With these Rides

Flying Machine (Orbiter without top)--Busch Gardens Europe
Orbiter--NAME (Cooke's Amusements)
Orbiter--Seattle Center
Sandstorm (Orbiter without top)--Busch Gardens Africa
Typhoon--Murphy Brothers
Vortex--Adventureland in UK
Orbiter--Mighty Bluegrass Shows, Bill Hames Shows
Typhoon--World's Finest Shows

[edit] Trivia

The Orbiter is made by Tivoli manufacturing, a British company. In the U.S. their representative is Amtech.
The Orbiter comes in at least three different names. The names are the Orbiter, Predator, and Typhoon. The Orbiter and Predator both have a cylinder ball on top (if they didn't take it off), and the Typhoon has lightning bolts.
The Orbiter/Typhoon/Predator arms don't always tilt at the same height (90%). Some might tilt all the way while others don't tilt a lot.
Most Orbiters consist of six arms, and have three cars for each arm with up to two people sitting in each car.
There is a metal lap bar that comes down on the car for the restraint.
The Extreme Orbiter is actually called a Remix. It's a completely different experience.