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The world's highest swing ride goes up a whopping 400 ft in the air and has just opened in Texas
UK Mail ^ | 5/25/13 | DAVID MCCORMACK

Posted on 05/25/2013 8:45:46 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom

The world’s tallest tower swing ride, which sends those foolhardy enough to get on-board a whopping 400 feet up in the air, was officially opened on Saturday at the Six Flags Over Texas amusement park in Arlington.

The Texas SkyScreamer allows up to twenty-four riders to sit in open-air swings while spinning in a 124-foot circle at speeds up to 35 mph.

At its 40 story peak - and if the riders still have their eyes open - they can see not only Arlington, but also Dallas and Fort Worth.

‘We are thrilled to add the tallest swing ride in the world to our premier line up of rides and attractions,’ said Steve Martindale, park president of Six Flags Over Texas.

‘It offers the most unique ride experience for an attraction of this kind, and also lives up to the Texas mantra that everything is bigger in the Lone Star state!’

There are seven SkyScreamer rides located at theme parks throughout the U.S. but this latest one dwarfs the competition, the next tallest is in Georgia and is a mere 242 feet tall.

Due to the far greater height though, riders are spun at a reduced speed of 35mph compared to the usual 43 mph.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: amusement; ride; swing
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To: Norm Lenhart
You may START the ride in clean underwear....

"First you say it, then you do it." - Bill Cosby

21 posted on 05/25/2013 9:42:15 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: RegulatorCountry
The forth photo isn’t Texas, it’s Georgia if I’m not mistaken. Tree cover is too dense, too hilly for that part of Texas.

By Jove you're right.
Now that I look, the tower isn't the same color, and the frames that the swings are attached to are closed in with stars on them instead of open framed like the other pictures.

22 posted on 05/25/2013 9:45:00 PM PDT by FreedomOfExpression
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To: ProtectOurFreedom; a fool in paradise

Evidently, the tower was constructed from the highest quality parts designed and manufactured in China.


23 posted on 05/25/2013 9:46:53 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong! Ice cream is delicious!)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Not in this lifetime!! I would die before it ever got to the highest point!


24 posted on 05/25/2013 9:48:04 PM PDT by ASouthernGrl (BHO sucks - literally or metaphorically, you decide.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Me, I like living at sea level, and are presently considering moving to regions located below sea level to enjoy ultimate safety.


25 posted on 05/25/2013 9:50:02 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong! Ice cream is delicious!)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

This is even higher:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci3Z8SD7csY


26 posted on 05/25/2013 9:53:20 PM PDT by Kickass Conservative (America has a two Party system, the Tea Party and the Communist Party.)
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To: dfwgator; Norm Lenhart

“You may START the ride in clean underwear....”

I suppose you both think the defication is going to stay there...I don’t want to be anywere on the ground near that ride.


27 posted on 05/25/2013 9:54:20 PM PDT by GGpaX4DumpedTea
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To: GGpaX4DumpedTea

Good point.


28 posted on 05/25/2013 10:03:14 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Nup - I am getting vertigo looking at the photos!


29 posted on 05/25/2013 10:07:09 PM PDT by melsec (Once a Jolly Swagman camped by a Billabong....)
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To: Kickass Conservative
This is even higher:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci3Z8SD7csY

I'm sorry, but you could not get enough of ANY intoxicating substance in me to get me on that ride. I'd piss myself, likely fill my pants, AND vomit...at the same time.

Not to mention that my nads would be somewhere up around my ears.

30 posted on 05/25/2013 10:14:44 PM PDT by hoagy62 ("Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered..."-Thomas Paine. 1776)
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I keep thinking about the time the chain broke on my swingset when I was a kid; there is no freakin way I’d get on that thing.


31 posted on 05/25/2013 10:16:05 PM PDT by Arkansas Toothpick
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

No thank you,Six Flags have horrible maintanance records and a history of being overrun by amish yutes.Do a Google search.


32 posted on 05/25/2013 10:22:19 PM PDT by Craftmore
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To: hoagy62

With that in mind, one might want to take an umbrella on the next visit to that particular park.


33 posted on 05/25/2013 10:27:12 PM PDT by Trod Upon (Every penny given to film and TV media companies goes right into enemy coffers. Starve them out!)
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To: hoagy62

I did the Big Shot and the Roller Coaster on top of the Tower. Haven’t been there since they installed that ride though.

They do have a “Free Fall” ride as well. They put you in a harness attached to a cable with a Governor Mechanism and drop you off the Tower. I think you drop about 800 feet.


34 posted on 05/25/2013 10:30:14 PM PDT by Kickass Conservative (America has a two Party system, the Tea Party and the Communist Party.)
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To: hoagy62

Remind me never to sit next to you on a Roller Coaster, or an airliner. LOL


35 posted on 05/25/2013 10:32:15 PM PDT by Kickass Conservative (America has a two Party system, the Tea Party and the Communist Party.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

There was a time in my life I would have beat down the doors to get on this ride. Not even that long ago.The scarier...the better.

I really hate growing up...and having a bad back. :(


36 posted on 05/25/2013 10:40:24 PM PDT by berdie
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

37 posted on 05/25/2013 10:42:00 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: RegulatorCountry

You’re probably correct. People are really surprised when visiting Texas for the first time and discover that yes, we really do have trees and in some parts of the state we also have hills but most of them are not terribly tall and of the rolling type.

Really miss Six Flags since it closed in Houston. They had one ride in which you stood up and then began going skyward several stories, cranked out over a platform, at which time you wondered what you were doing on that ride, then the platform dropped out from under you and down you went. After the first time it wasn’t so bad.


38 posted on 05/25/2013 11:16:56 PM PDT by Grams A (The Sun will rise in the East in the morning and God is still on his throne.)
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To: Grams A

That part of Texas isn’t noted for anything I’d term a hill and the east Texas trees are starting to thin out as the climate dries.


39 posted on 05/25/2013 11:22:46 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: glyptol

Many years ago I took my little cousin on the “Merry Mixer’ ride at the local carnival.

At the apogee of each turn, I felt a strange clunking/grinding noise.

I held on to her until the ride was over.

When we finally stopped and exited the seat, they shut down the ride and came out to remove it.

The bolts holding the seat on had worn almost all the way through the rusted sheet metal.

I’m not sure what I would’ve done had she and I been flung out over the parked cars, still strapped into that heavy metal object.

Haven’t been on a carnival ride, since.


40 posted on 05/25/2013 11:27:16 PM PDT by Salamander (The only things that last forever are memories and sorrow.)
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