Wheel of death (Aerial arts)

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For other uses, see Wheel of death (disambiguation).

The Wheel of death, in the context of aerial and trapeze acts, is a large rotating apparatus on which performers carry out synchronized acrobatic stunts. The "wheel" is actually a large space frame beam with hooped tracks at either end, within which the performers can stand. As the performers run around on either the inside or outside of the hoops the whole apparatus rotates. Performers also do balancing type stunts with the wheel stationary.

The Wheel of death is said to have originated in America during the early 1930's and was also know as the "Space wheel". Some early versions were performed by a single artist and incorporated a counterbalance on the other end. Following fatal accidents the apparatus fell out of favour for a considerable time until it was re-introduced in the 1970s under the name Wheel of Death. Claude Pinkellmann was the last person to die using The Wheel, in November 1982.^[1]