Tallest Ferris Wheel for Beijing 2008

[tngdiablo]

^ My calculations show that this ferris wheel will be moving at approximately 1.070997 miles per hour, which is also 0.015708 feet per second.

[dementedguy]

Note that these kinds of ferris wheels are not the kinds you would find in amusement parks. I think the more accurate name is 'Observation Wheel'. It's like those observation towers. For tourists to view the skyline from tall heights.

 

I doubt you would get sweaty palms from this. It's not like you're on a rocking rickety-old gondola. Those pods are fully enclosed (and fully air-conditioned!) and just stay in place throughout the rotation. I'm afraid of heights but I rode London Eye without any problems. It was quite cool actually!

 

And 20-30 minutes per lap is not long for these kinds of wheels since (for London Eye) they only go, well, one lap.

[DallasAlvey]

For one thing my sister would never ever ride that.

[robbalvey]

For one thing my sister would never ever ride that.

If we could get her on the worlds tallest Skycoaster, we could probably get her on that too!

 

[DallasAlvey]

^ Yea but ever now she's afraid of heights or somthing.

[Niller]

The London Eye is 424 m in circumference and it takes 30 min. to make one full rotation. It means it travels with a speed of 24 cm per second (0.79 ft per second) or 0,9 km per hour (0,6 miles per hour).

 

And with a height of 208 m, this one will approximately have a circumference at 628 m, and when it will take 20 min. to make one rotation, then it will travel with a speed of 35 cm per second (1,15 ft per second) or 1,9 km per hour (0,78 miles per hour).

 

At The London Eye you can just walk on because it goes this slowly, but I would think the reason why you cannot just walk on at this one, is because it goes to fast.

[rollermonkey]

Thanks!

 

I blame the American education system.

[Calvin]

.78 mph? Escalators go something like 2 mph...so why the hassle of boarding? Unless you goofed up your equation...

[Niller]

Sorry. My fault.

 

1 mile is about 1,65 km, then 1,9 km is 1,15 miles.

 

Then, (according to my calculations), this Beijing wheel will travel with a speed of 1,15 miles per second (1,9 km per hour).

 

But it still is'nt that fast compared to the speed of an escalator, as you, Calvin, wrote is about 2 miles per hour.

[BiCoastal Kid]

Well, it's also a 300 foot radius circle spinning around, supported by those tiny wires/poles. You don't want to create too much force on it, since with that size it'd be very easy for something to go wrong if it went too fast.

[XanderLee]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070112/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_china_ferriswheel

 

SHANGHAI, Jan 12 (Reuters Life!) - China's booming financial hub of Shanghai has ditched plans to build the world's tallest Ferris wheel and will build a skyscraper in its place, state media said.

 

The wheel would have stood about 200 metres (656 ft) high and have 36 cabins able to take more than 1,000 visitors at a time, Xinhua news agency said in a report seen on Friday.

 

It would have stripped the world's-tallest title from the 135-metre London Eye, and could have cost up to 800 million yuan (53 million pounds), Xinhua said.

 

But a Chinese Ferris wheel could still have its day in the sun, as a developer in China's landlocked eastern province of Jiangxi wants to register its 160-metre-high wheel as the world's tallest.

 

The Star of Nanchang, named after the provincial capital, opened for business last May, and cost 57 million yuan to build, Xinhua said.

 

The developer of that wheel said application procedures for an entry in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's tallest wheel were underway, the report added.

 

Here we go...Vegas all over again!

[coasterdude5]

Whoa, that was uhh... unexpected? That seems to me like a weird switch. But hey, it looks like they have their reasons.

[Teonanacatl]

Construction began Monday on what was expected to be the world's tallest Ferris wheel, which will soar 680 feet over the Chinese capital when it is complete, state media reported.

 

The $99 million Beijing Great Wheel was supposed to be open to tourists at next summer's Olympic Games, but the project had been delayed by a number of design changes, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Great Wheel Corp. A completion date has not been announced.

 

Complete article:

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2007/11/05/1074020-china-ferris-wheel-construction-begins

[lil jimmy norton]

That is just ridiculous. Normal size ferris wheels scare the poo out of me, I could imagine how that one would. But I'm sure the view is fantastic.

[odie]

Wow this thing looks crazy! Does anyone understand how the loading system works though? it looks really confusing.

[thefitness]

^I was also trying to figure it out. Just a guess, but I think it uses a moving pathway. Like how guests load the Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom.

[SpartanTS]

I am death scared of ferris wheels. I never feel safe in them at all.

[Twister II]

Check this out:

 

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/extreme_machines/4248340.html

 

It says you will be able to see the Great Wall of China!

[Dailey Enterprizes]

Seeing this just makes me think who's going to make the tallest and fastest Merry-Go-Round?

 

 

 

Lol, good for China...

[BRTeller]

Is this going to happen, one article says its cancelled. The other says it is going to start construction. I'm confused.

 

Anyways looks pretty cool.

 

-Brandon

[FitchCoaster]

As much as I'd probably be terrified if I ever went on it, it looks pretty cool.

 

I really hope construction for it isn't cancelled...

[Twister II]

I would just stand their and marvel at the engineering and size of it!

[Erik Johnson]

The Great Wall is only like 35 or 40 miles away from Beijing. Its not really that far away.

[gisco]

As of November 5th, it was a go.

 

http://www.china.org.cn/english/China/230881.htm

[Ice101]

Wow! They decide to build it. Then cancel it. Then decide to build it again. Wow