The swing ride or chair swing ride' (sometimes called a swing carousel, wave swinger, yo-yo, Chair-O-Planes or swinger) is a fairground ride that is a variation on the carousel in which the chairs are suspended on chains from the rotating top of the carousel. On some versions, particularly on the Wave Swingers, the rotating top of the carousel also tilts for additional variations of motion.
This type of swings ride was present at even the earliest amusement parks. At Idora Park in Oakland, California, in 1908, the ride was called Flying Swing, but appears to be the same principle.
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The Chair-O-Planes premiered in Germany in 1972, designed by Zierer and built by Franz Schwarzkopf, brother of Anton Schwarzkopf. In 1974 the first portable unit debuted under the same partnership. Since then Zierer has built about 200 units.[1] Other manufacturers have followed creating their own versions of the Chair-O-Planes including Zamperla, Chance Morgan, Grover Watkins, Bertazzon, Barberi, Vekoma and Sanoyas Hishino Meisho.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
In the late 2000s, Australian manufacturer Funtime developed the world's first tower swinger known as the Star Flyer.[7] Mondial followed with their WindSeeker resulting in a lawsuit between the two companies.[8][9] Zamperla also sell a Vertical Swing.[10]
Loudoun Castle Theme Park in Scotland claims that its moon-shaped ride, "The Plough", is the largest Chair-O-Plane in the world. The Plough was originally called Apollo 14 and was owned by the Bembom family, operating in their Ponypark Slagharen in Holland during the late seventies. It had gondolas travelling around the outside of the ride. When moved to Dreamland in England (then called "Bembom Brothers"), it was reconstructed into a Chair-O-Plane and named Heatwave. Later on, Henk Bembom moved Heatwave to his new park, Loudoun Castle, where it was renamed "The Plough" and painted green. The theme park closed in 2010 and has been standing but not operating ever since.
There is also a Chair-O-Plane ride at Alton Towers in Staffordshire. Set in a fantasy themed area of the park called Cloud Cukoo Land, it is themed as a giant mushroom. This was formerly themed as a prehistoric dinosaur-type ride and located in an area called Ug Land.
Chessington World of Adventures is home to a monkey-themed Chair-O-Planes, named 'Monkey Swinger', that squirts water at riders. This was formerly themed to Billy Whizz of The Beano.
Most of the swing carousel rides in North America are located at amusement parks. They are usually made by Zierer (which calls the ride Wave swinger), although some are made by Bertazzon (which calls the ride Swing Carousel) or Zamperla (which calls the ride Flying Carousel).
Some of these include:
In Italy most of the Chair-O-Planes travel with fairs. The ride is called Seggiolini volanti ("Flying chairs") or calcinculo which literally means "kick in the bottom", from the ingenious way used to grab the high-placed "tail" and win a free ride. Two people sit in contiguous seats, and the one sitting behind kicks the friend higher in the air.
A German rock band is named Chair-O-Plane.[11]
A Chair-O-Planes is featured on the cover of Dave Matthews Band's 1994 album Under the Table and Dreaming. The liner note credit lists the site of this photo as Sandusky, Ohio, which is the location of Cedar Point.