Posted by We didn’t get to finish the Cornell TPEG Competition this year. Unfortunately, 2 of our club members completely disappeared halfway into the project, and a third member got covid…And unlike Imaginations when I had a month to do it, with Cornell I only had a few days. And that wasn’t enough time to teach myself CAD and so forth, let alone do an entire project by myself.
But, I did at least finish one ride concept.
I know the dragons aren’t super great, especially the rightmost one in the back. He’s a little bit derpy, but he’s got the spirit.
And there’s also the shadow over my arm. :V
But — this is really two rides in one. The ride at the top is an observation deck, like Sky Cabin at Knott’s, but with greenery. The observation tower starts indoors, but when it reaches the top, the roof retracts and you’re left with a lookout and some telescopes to see the rest of the theme park all around you. In practice, the ride will probably be taller than this.
The ride in the middle is a hybrid carousel/waveswinger ride. The little dragons go up and down, as well as swing outward, and pick up quite a bit of speed. It certainly isn’t for all ages like a merry-go-round is, but it should still be on the family-friendly side.
The duality of water and fire is a theme that I’m experimenting with for this park concept, which is based on the Cornell prompt. The dragons can spew (holographic) fire and mist rains down from the greenery on the roof of the swings on hot days.
A while back, I saw an image of a Zamperla Air Race which did barrel rolls (I think) over actual, real flames, with the flames perfectly synchronized such that no one got burned. While the control system programming for that sounds rather terrifying (what if you screw it up and someone freaking dies?), I also think it’s such a cool concept. Maybe in a future iteration of this ride, I’ll add that.
I was thinking of putting binoculars on the dragons, but I think the ride will be going too fast for them to be of any use. Also, I love the idea of soaring through the treetops, so I thought about making a retractable turntable (with a moat) that brings the trees underneath your feet as you ride, kind of like how the floor automatically retracts under your feet on Samurai at Lagoon or La Revolucion at Knott’s.