Ride Profile
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A brief history of the Flying Turns
John Norman Bartlett, a British aviator in World War I, came to North America after the war with an idea for a rollercoaster using a trackless wooden chute, full of twists like a bobsled course, with toboggan-like cars. He called it the Flying Turns, and filed a patent for the idea in 1926. In 1928 he and coaster builder John Miller began building the new ride. The prototype opened in 1929 at Lakeside Park, Dayton, Ohio. When the ride went into production, much of the idea was the same, designed by Bartlett, looked more like monoplanes. Miller worked on the loading station, supporting structure, braking system and incline. After the appearance of the Flying Turns at Lakeside, a second opened in 1930 at Euclid Beach Park, Cleveland, Ohio. Rocky Point Amusement Park, Warwick, Rhode Island, installed the third in 1931, followed by the ride that opened in 1933 at the Chicago World’s Fair, before being moved to Chicago’s Riverside Park in 1935 (as pictured left) after the fair closed. The same year also saw the appearance of a ride at Fyns Tivoli, Odense, Denmark. It was moved and rebuilt more than any other Flying Turns, appearing at the Brussels International Exposition in 1935, Berlin Olympics in 1936, Bakken near Copenhagen in the late 1930s, and finally back to Fyns Tivoli in 1951. Both Forest Park Highlands in St Louis and Steeplechase Park at New York’s Coney Island added such a ride in 1934. New Jersey’s Palisades Park added a new version called the Lake Placid Bobsleds in 1937. Bartlett’s last Flying Turns was built for the 1939 New York World’s Fair, and then moved to Coney Island when the event closed in 1940. All of Bartlett’s Flying Turns were gone by the early 1970s. Beginning in 2006, the concept was resurrected and built from
scratch by staff at Knoebels Amusement Resort in Pennsylvania. It was designed by John
Fetterman from an original Miller and Bartlett design, and finally opened after seven long years on 4 October, 2013. We hope our pictures elsewhere on this page do it justice.
44 NOVEMBER 2013
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