Company Profile
www.parkworld-online.com
S&S 4D Free Spin, Six Flags over Texas
The business of
ups and downs Y
Kathy Archer takes us through the S&S story, from humble beginnings to worldwide prestige
ou can’t think about 1994 without remembering Forrest Gump, the founding of Yahoo and Amazon, Michael Jackson’s marriage, the English Channel
tunnel, and the Sony PlayStation. Also in 1994, a small company, S&S Power (which
eventually became S&S Worldwide) was founded in northern Utah. The company had only a single product, the ‘Space Shot’ an air-launched tower ride, developed by company founder Stan Checketts and his team with the goal of creating “a ride for big people that would give them the same type of thrill as when a baby squeals in happy excitement when being tossed in the air.” Stories from the early days of S&S include tales of
Checketts duct-taping himself to early prototype models of his ride concepts in order to test ride theories and mechanical basics. With no market research, Checketts bought a suit and started selling tower rides, based only on his absolute conviction that his products were great. Checketts says that
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he and his team at S&S were, “dedicated to finding new ways to thrill and excite people. We wanted anyone who rode our rides to say ‘it was the funnest day of my life.’”
A new life for Arrow In 2002, S&S expanded with its acquisition of assets of the bankrupt Arrow Dynamics. Arrow had started in the roller coaster business more than 60 years previously with the Matterhorn at Disneyland and had subsequently created the corkscrew, 4th Dimension, and other innovative and exciting coaster designs. In addition to Arrow’s ride designs and parts sales business, S&S also picked up some experienced and talented people. One of these was Carolyn Weaver, who had been with
Arrow for 21 years, and now has spent another 15 years with S&S Worldwide, providing customer service and parts sales to Arrow customers around the globe. Weaver commented that she is thrilled with the growth that S&S has
MAY 2018
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