Finnish Fling |
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Statistics: Manufacturer: Chance Rides Model Type: Rotor All Time Maximum Capacity: 810 an hour |
An original ride to the park, Finnish Fling is a very small footprint of a ride, but packs a thrilling punch even after forty plus years of operation. Finnish Fling as a whole hasn't changed much since 1973, riders still line up down its narrow curved walkway and then enter into the same burlap colored barrel interior. After the door is closed, riders stand around the interior of the drum as it begins to spin. Once it reaches its maximum speed of 33 rotations per minute, the floor is lowered and riders are left stuck to the barrel interior by gravitational forces created by the barrel spinning. For this reason many have a love/hate relationship with the Fling, riders either hate it, usually for its nauseating effects or love it, for the same reason.
Fling was produced by Chance Rides of Wichita, KS (today is known as Chance-Morgan), and is what is classified as a Rotor. During the 1950's and 60's, it was prevalent, so much that almost every park in the country had one. Over the years, Rotors have vanished almost as quickly as they were added, to a point where only five are in operation in the country at this time. (Canobie Lake in NH, Frontier City in Oklahoma City, Sylvan Beach Amusement Park in NY and Puyallup Fair in Washington State). It is also the only operating Rotor within the Cedar Fair chain or parks.
As mentioned previously very little has changed with Fling over the years, except aesthetically. Aesthetically, it was originally painted orange and brown and was changed to its current color scheme or dark teal around the year 2000. Also prior to the mid-1990's Fling was home to one of the park's multiple miniature boat props. At one time, Worlds of Fun was literally covered with props purchased from the 1970 MGM Backlot auction, one of those was a 20-foot long, spartan galley ship (ships with dozens of rowers), used in the 1959 MGM classic "Ben Hur". It was removed at some point in the early 1990's and it's officially unknown what it's final destination was. Thought it might have ended up in a landfill somewhere, it also could have possibly been picked up by Planet Hollywood. It is known that Planet Hollywood has in their archives a galley ship also from the 1959 "Ben Hur", one that was found abandoned in a Nebraska field in the mid-1990's. Though we have been in contact with an archivist at Planet Hollywood, they refuse to release any specific details which makes it impossible to either confirm or deny this interesting rumor.