Looping Starships

[Tanks4me05]

Phoenix at Busch Gardens Africa is a pretty well themed Looping Starship (yes, BGA has a few flat rides), and I have a couple of pics from last April:

 

 

 

Oh, and Looping Starship, Valleyfair is in the USA, and so is Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens Africa, Carowinds and Six Flags Over Texas. They are spread out all over the eastern half of the united states, and I have placed green dots on the approximate locations of the parks in the United States on this photo: (In case you don't know much of the United States' states.)

 

Pic from nationsonline.org (Photoshopped.)

 

Note the scale in the bottom left corner of the pic in case you don't know how big the USA is.

[niiicolaaah]

CW is where it says "Toronto" on the map... don't be all anti-Canada now!

[Tanks4me05]

^ Personally, I think Canada is cool, but I didn't feel like putting it on there. (No offense, Paul.)

 

EDIT: Is this better, Nicole?

 

[RIP Psyclone]

^What about SFGAdv's?

[Tanks4me05]

^Whoops, I thought someone said that SFGADV's Looping Starship was demolished.

 

[Carnage]

^ Personally, I think Canada is cool, but I didn't feel like putting it on there. (No offense, Paul.)

 

The Canadian in me is saying "Typical America arrogance".

 

And the American in my is say "Hoorahh!!"

[sam06pr]

I think Phoenix at BGA is the better looking Looping starship

[Looping Starship]

You guys are just so kind!!!!

 

I´m stunned over how many helpful people there are in here!

 

 

hahaha, i actually don´t know much about the US, and the map was kind of funny because now i know approx. where the LSS´s are placed in the USA. I also love the picking between USA and Canada !! You guys are so funny!

 

 

When i come home tonight, i will try post all the pictures i have of the one we had here in Sweden. I have a couple of pics of it and also, i will give you the story about it...Not that you care, but it makes me feel better

 

 

I found the commercial yesterday for the Jet Scream back in 1990 when it was new. AWESOME! So cool! I really miss those days when the flat rides was the new thing for the season...Late 80´s and early 90´s. When Liseberg in Sweden opened up and had Top Spin as the new ride for the season. What a revolution that was! I remember that when they opened up (i think it was for the 1993 season), i had the magical length to ride it. So that was the first time i rode Top Spin and the LSS here in Sweden!

 

 

Please keep on posting pictures and movies ofcourse! Thanks for the Great Adventure history tip..I´ve already found that page and i spent 2 hours reading it over and over again and watching the pictures...

 

Addicted to LSS???weeell...kind of...

 

They are sort of magic right now because i have to go from Sweden to USA to be able to ride it again, which i also WILL DO! No, not all Swedish people are that crazy...

 

 

Have a good day everyone!

 

 

Oh, if anyone is interested, i can give you some facts about Lisebergs rides, i.e Balder, Looping Star, Lisebergsbanan..?

[Tanks4me05]

^ Personally, I think Canada is cool, but I didn't feel like putting it on there. (No offense, Paul.)

 

The Canadian in me is saying "Typical America arrogance".

 

And the American in my is say "Hoorahh!!"

 

Again, no offense, I was just lazy... if Canada had all but one of the Looping Starships and the USA had just one, I would have left out USA. IMO, Canada is awesome. (Bacon, Marine Land's Huss Condor, etc.)

[Looping Starship]

Okay everyone, i can´t start a thread with this content without giving you what i know

 

 

So for all of you, here´s the Starship we had in Sweden.

 

 

 

It opened 1989 and i was a massive success. They added it only 2 years after they introduced Lisebergsbanan. So this was the glory days! I was only 7 years old at the moment so i couldn´t ride. But you bet that i was impressed of it. We didn´t have a ride like this in Sweden at all at the time. They gave it the name "Aerovarvet" which is a little bit hard to translate..but i think that Aero-loop will be the best translation for it! The theme all in all was basically an Airport with this massive Looping Aeroplane. They named it (ofcourse) Liseberg Airways. Anyways. In the first years of operation, the staff where dressed like stewards and when you headed up for the queue you had a sign saying "Gate 1 - Departure" and also a sign over the Exit saying "Arrivals". When you exited the plane, you had to go through a little house with the sign "Customs". Everything was so well themed! This Looping Starship ran a rather unique program. You got three revolutions at quite high speed with no hangtime at all. This gave you the feeling of being weightless. On the last revolution though, you got maaaaassive hangtime! 6-8 seconds in the inverted position was very usual! The lightning was really well done. During the nights, they lit up the cockpit showing the shadows of 2 pilots, and red lights made it look like the engines where real. It also had the red lights on the wingtips and 2 lights on the rearwing that flashed..So in the evening when it went over the tree tops, you could clearly see the flashes from the lights. They also had spotlights that lighted up the passenger compartment. So imagine for yourself how awesome it looked when it made its first revolution and you could hear 50 persons screaming and all this lightning on top if it. Liseberg SADLY rebuilt this ride for the 2002 season into "Kulingen" which is a storm level. They removed the airplane body and the counterweight, resulting in a pirateship looking ride with really massive airtime! Believe it or not, i got totally shocked when i rode it. BUT, it´s not the same as when it was Aerovarvet though. According to Liseberg, they rebuilt it because of lack of popularity. I don´t understand that part...Theres never queue now and when it was Aerovarvet you had to wait at least 1-2 ride cycles. Sadly, i think this ride will go out of time completely very soon. These are all the pictures i could find, i have 2 of myself riding it, but i don´t have any scanner. So, here it is. try to see for yourself how cool themed it was and because of the ride program, maybe you can figure out my love to these rides?

And this is what it looks like today. *sighs*. And yes, they still have the same restraint system! I ride this everythime i visit Liseberg and no, they aren´t that bad.

Probably the last year of operation. If you compare to the older pictures, you now have an S&S freefall tower in the middle of Lisebergbanans helix! You can see that after 11 years of operation, the shape is still excellent. They really do take care of their rides at Liseberg. And here we have those legendary lapbars! hehe. I don´t know, but these wasn´t that bad as you all say. Maybe they where adjusted in some kind of way?

The nice queueline. No, that´s not me that tried to look like a reindeer...The sign with the number two means ofcourse that either 2 coupons or the "ride-pass" is accepted for this ride. There you also have a piece of Lisebergsbanan in the background!

Probably during the slow down process of the ride. the text on the rear engine "Se-Upp" means basically two things. "Watch Out" and "Look up" and the point is ofcourse that you have to decide for yourself which one of them it means. Note that on the wing, they had the Liseberg rabbit dressed as a pilot. And also in the black area, note the red light just by the wingtip. I told you this ride was well themed...

Here it is with the "new" colours that existed all the way til they rebuilt it. THOSE WHERE THE DAYS! Please note the flight observation tower, in that, they had the ticket control and it was here you met the first steward dressed staff.

This is the original colours of Aerovarvet. Looks really nice against the blue sky. For those of you who has visited Liseberg, it was located on top of the mountain inside Liseberg. This gave you a very nice feeling of being hiiiigh above the ground!

[CycloneMan]

Awesome pictures! I loved these rides until I last rode one at Six Flags Great Adventure. It was during the cycle and there was a loud crack noise and my lap bar popped open a good 4 inches and it scarred me. That was in September. I did like when the weight would be ballenced enough for you to just sit upside down for a few moments .

 

-Dainan "They are certainly something" Rafferty

[Looping Starship]

cycloneman: wow...now that would scare me to!!!Let me tell you that..

 

But don´t you have some kind of homemade seatbelt-xtra-seurity-thing on that one? I´ve never seen it so that must be a home made thing?

 

 

I´m very glad that you liked the one we had here in Sweden...The pictures doesn´t says it all, but it was so nicely theme, one of their best themed rides ever.

 

I didn´t have this picture at home so i´d have to come to work to post it..But this is the last one for now. I will try to find a scanner so that everyone can see my catch my hangtime in it

Here is my absolute favourite picture of it! It´s so nice! Here you can see those red lights on the wingtips working, unfortunately, this photo was shot when the flashing lights on the rearwings didn´t flash. If i´m not mistaking, they had flashing lights behind those red ones on the wingtips also. It certainly looked awesome when it was rocking and the lights flashed! Those where the days..i can still hear the people screaming when i see this picture. aaaaaargh...i want i back!

[Loco]

^^^^ That looping starship doesn't have any counterweights...thats weird.

 

It looks cool though.

[Looping Starship]

Loco: that´s just because they rebuilt it into a swinging ship ride, not making any revolutions =(

 

 

It´s so sad too see it!

[Kingbooba]

I don't know if you've heard of it, but there is a park called Busch Gardens Europe in the United States. They've got a simple pirate ship. It's called the Battering Ram. It doesn't loop, but you get some OK air-time.

[Looping Starship]

Maybe that´s Intamins Bounty ride? Pretty much the same. I suppose that Lisberg rebuilt their LSS into a Bounty ride, basically.

 

Did you get my message about adding me?

[The Patchman]

I am too terrified to ride a Looping Starship, maybe I will brave the Southern Star this summer.

[Looping Starship]

Too terrified+ Interesting...very interesting. It seems like those Looping Starships still thrills people.... Please tell me, what makes you terrified about them?

[The Patchman]

Just hanging up side down for a long time freaks me out. Like on a coaster its only 3 seconds. On these its longer. Just freaks me out for some reason.

[steel]

For some reason, I remember the VF! Starship having different restraints. I don't know, I might be wrong. I don't remember the two sides of the OTSR connecting like that, and they were even thinner. So uncomfortable. I would like the rides a lot more if they didn't hurt so damn much in such a bad area. I would almost rather ride an Inverter.

[Looping Starship]

Steel:

 

Well...i do think that you might be right. Because Intamin introduced the ride in 1985. And Liseberg added their LSS for the 1989 season. Maybe Intamin updated the restraint system into a more comfortable design over these 5 years? Because in the late 80´s, it seems like everything that rocked forward and backward or made inversions, was the big thrill? How many parks hasn´t had a Pirate Ship or a Looping Starship ride or a Huss Ranger?

 

We don´t have any Inverters over here, but i´ve read somewhere else that it´s a terrible ride because of the restraints? I´ve always found the ride interesting though!

 

Well, my own opinion when it comes to worst restraints on a flat will be given to.....*drums*......*cymbal crash*.... Huss Top Spin!!!.....OUCH! That´s all i have to say. Sad, because the ride itself is quite entertaining. I still have nightmares of them (and scars on my legs).

[steel]

Think Huss Topspin restraints and push them in even tighter. Then hang upside-down for around five seconds and you get Inverter.

[Looping Starship]

hahaha, and people complain about Looping Starships restraints????

Come on guys

 

I bet that those Inverter rides never made any success...they are very rare in my opinion...

[Force 310]

Just hanging up side down for a long time freaks me out. Like on a coaster its only 3 seconds.

Aside from (maybe) Hydra's jo-jo roll... 3 seconds of hangtime? Is B&M suddenly making 200-foot tall vertical loops, or are you just misinformed?

 

I would have taken some pictures of Phoenix (Intamin looping starship, I believe) at BGA while I was there, but between my 7-year-old cousin begging me to go with her on Scorpion and my general distaste for being castrated, getting near Phoenix while I was in Timbuktu wasn't among my highest priorities for the day. Also, the camera was either malfunctioning or lost for about half of the trip. Eh.

[montezooma]

Here is how the rides were listed in the Intamin Ride Catalog both as the Boat and the Space Shuttle.