Amusement park ride with cantilevered ride vehicles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9272224-B2
Application number	US-201414198963-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 6, 2014
Priority date	Mar 6, 2014
Publication date	Mar 1, 2016
Grant date	Mar 1, 2016

Abstract

An amusement park ride adapted to provide passengers unobstructed lines of sight in turns and increased turn velocities. The ride includes a track and a ride vehicle. The ride vehicle includes a track connector assembly coupled to the track for movement along the ride path in a direction of travel. The vehicle also includes a vehicle base mounted to the track connector assembly to move with the track connector. The vehicle includes a bridge, or cantilever support arm or boom, extending from the vehicle base. The vehicle further includes a passenger compartment with one or more passenger seats. The passenger compartment is mounted to the bridge such that the seats and any passengers seated therein are spaced apart from the base at a cantilever distance. As a result, the passenger compartment has fore or aft cantilever mounting relative to the track connector assembly and relative to the vehicle base.

First claim

We claim:

1. An amusement park ride, comprising:
a structural track defining a ride path with a plurality of curves; and
a plurality of ride vehicles linked together into a train, wherein each of the ride vehicles comprises:
a track connector assembly rollably engaging the structural track;
a vehicle base mounted to the track connector assembly;
a cantilever support arm extending from a fore or aft end of the vehicle base; and
a passenger compartment for receiving passengers, wherein the passenger compartment is mounted to an end of the cantilever support arm that is distal and spaced apart a cantilever distance from a rotation axis of the vehicle base,

wherein the cantilever support arm of each trailing ones of the ride vehicles in the train extends a distance from a corresponding one of the bases to at least partially overlap with a leading one of the ride vehicles.

2. The ride of claim 1 , wherein the cantilever distance is measured between a passenger seat in the passenger compartment that is proximate to the vehicle base and wherein the cantilever distance is at least 3 feet.

3. The ride of claim 1 , wherein the cantilever distance is selected such that a portion of the passenger compartment containing seats for the received passengers extends outward from the structural track when the corresponding one of the ride vehicles travels through one of the curves.

4. The ride of claim 3 , wherein one of the ride vehicles, leading the corresponding one of the ride vehicles, has a portion of the passenger compartment containing seats for the received passengers concurrently extending outward from the structural track in a different direction, whereby the two portions of the passenger compartments have lines of sight unobstructed by other ones of the passenger compartments.

5. The ride of claim 1 , wherein the cantilever support arm extends outward from the vehicle base at a cantilever angle of 15 to 60 degrees.

6. An amusement park ride, comprising:
a structural track defining a ride path with a plurality of curves; and
a plurality of ride vehicles linked together into a train, wherein each of the ride vehicles comprises:
a track connector assembly rollably engaging the structural track;
a vehicle base mounted to the track connector assembly;
a cantilever support arm extending from a fore or aft end of the vehicle base; and
a passenger compartment for receiving passengers, wherein the passenger compartment is mounted to an end of the cantilever support arm that is distal and spaced apart a cantilever distance from a rotation axis of the vehicle base,

wherein the cantilever support arm of each leading ones of the ride vehicles in the train extends a distance from a corresponding one of the bases to at least partially overlap with a trailing one of the ride vehicles.

7. The ride of claim 6 , wherein the cantilever distance is measured between a passenger seat in the passenger compartment that is proximate to the vehicle base and wherein the cantilever distance is at least 3 feet.

8. The ride of claim 6 , wherein the cantilever distance is selected such that a portion of the passenger compartment containing seats for the received passengers extends outward from the structural track when the corresponding one of the ride vehicles travels through one of the curves.

9. The ride of claim 8 , wherein one of the ride vehicles, leading the corresponding one of the ride vehicles, has a portion of the passenger compartment containing seats for the received passengers concurrently extending outward from the structural track in a different direction, whereby the two portions of the passenger compartments have lines of sight unobstructed by other ones of the passenger compartments.

10. The ride of claim 6 , wherein the cantilever support arm extends outward from the vehicle base at a cantilever angle of 15 to 60 degrees.

Assignees

• Disney Entpr Inc

Inventors

• Nemeth Edward A
• Banks Spencer T
• Howard Derek

Classifications

• A63G21/08 Primary

  with additional rotation of cars · CPC title

• A63G7/00

  Up-and-down hill tracks; Switchbacks · CPC title