Amusement park ride with cantilevered ride vehicles

摘要

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.

主权项

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; anda 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.