Sightseeing car rides are one of the typical amusement machines in amusement parks, mainly including sightseeing cars (Fig. 3-49), Arabian flying carpets (Fig. 3-50), spaceships (Fig. 3-51), and Ferris Ring Car (Figure 3-52), Pirate Ship (Figure 3-53), Time Travel (Figure 3-54), Super Ship (Figure 3-55), Hawaiian Waves (Figure 3-56) and Tornado (Figure 3-57 ) and so on, and the most typical one is  sightseeing car. The height of the small viewing car is only 4~5m, and the highest domestic viewing car has reached 150m. Due to the slow speed of the viewing car, it is suitable for all ages, and it can take tourists to high altitudes and enjoy the fascinating scenery in the distance.

Amusement ride Sightseeing car series

The sightseeing car is an indispensable amusement equipment in the amusement park, and it also represents the construction scale and advanced level of the modern amusement park. The runner rotates continuously and slowly, and the passengers sit in the gondola. It gradually opens up, and when it rises to the highest point above the ground, passengers can enjoy the surrounding scenery, the land scenery and the beautiful landscape, which is really feasting and refreshing, as shown in Figure 3-58 and Figure 3-59.

Main Structure

amusement ride sightseeing car is genera lly composed of a driving device, a column, a turntable, a gondola, a platform and a control room.

(1) Drive device. There are generally two driving devices, one is an electric motor; the other is a hydraulic motor.

(2) Uprights. There are two types of columns, one is a double support form (Figure 3-60), and the other is a single support form (also known as a cantilever type, see Figure 3-61).

(3) Turntable. According to the structure, the turntable is divided into three types: cable type (Figure 3-58), truss type (Figure 3-62) and truss cable type (Figure 3-63). The characteristic of the steel cable type is that the raceway disc and the main shaft are connected by steel cables; the characteristic of the truss type is that it extends from the main shaft through the truss, and finally the outer ring truss forms a large turntable; the characteristic of the truss wire type is that the turntable is in the structure. The support form combined with trusses and steel cables is adopted.Application range:amusement park、playground、theme park.

(4) Gondola. There are two types of gondolas: fully enclosed and semi-enclosed: fully enclosed gondolas are generally in the shape of beer barrels and water droplets (Figure 3-64); semi-enclosed gondolas are generally used on single-support viewing cars (Figure 3-65). The main stress-bearing structural parts of the gondola are made of steel, and the materials for the gondola enclosure are generally iron sheets, glass fiber reinforced plastics, and plexi glass.

(5) Platform. The platform is for passengers to get on and off. It has two construction methods: one is a steel structure, and the other is a brick-concrete structure.

(6) Control room. The control room mainly houses the console of the equipment. The console should have a broad field of vision, which can facilitate the operator to observe the operation of the equipment, so as to control the operation of the equipment in time.

 Working principle

The working principle of the sightseeing car is also different due to the different drive types of the turntable. The drive types of the turntable include wire rope friction drive, friction wheel drive, pin gear drive and hydraulic motor drive. The first drive type is rarely used now, and the working principles of the latter three drive types are described below.

(1) The mechanical movement principle of the friction wheel drive type. It drives the pulley by the motor, and drives the tire to rotate through the V-belt. The tire is pressed against the raceway plate of the turntable by the pressure of the spring. The tire rotation drives the raceway plate to rotate through friction, and the raceway plate drives the entire turntable to rotate. There are two forms of contact between the tire and the raceway disc: one is up and down (Figure 3-66 and Figure 3-67), and the other is left and right (Figure 3-68 and Figure 3-69).

(2) The mechanical movement principle of the pin gear drive type. It drives the pulley by the motor, the pulley is connected to the reducer, the reducer drives the pin gear, the gear meshes with the rack, and drives the turntable to rotate, as shown in Figure 3-70.

(3) The principle of mechanical movement of hydraulic motor drive type. This type is mainly used on cantilever viewing vehicles. The pinion is driven by a hydraulic motor, and the pinion meshes with the large gear to drive the turntable to rotate.

Safety device

The safety devices of the sightseeing car mainly include the secondary protection of the hanging shaft (Figure 3-71), the two locking devices of the car door (Figure 3-72), and the door and window barriers of the car. Since the passenger’s head cannot protrude out of the window and the non-enclosed car during operation, it is necessary to set up a barrier to prevent the passenger from colliding with the revolving structure or leave a safety distance of not less than 500mm.