Kanonen
Encyclopedia
Kanonen is a steel
Steel roller coaster
A steel roller coaster is a roller coaster that is defined by having a track made of steel. Steel coasters have earned immense popularity in the past 50 years throughout the world...

 roller coaster
Roller coaster
The roller coaster is a popular amusement ride developed for amusement parks and modern theme parks. LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented the first coasters on January 20, 1885...

 located at Liseberg
Liseberg
Liseberg is an amusement park located in Gothenburg, Sweden, the park opened in 1923. Liseberg is one of the most visited amusement parks in Scandinavia, attracting around 3 million visitors annually. Among the noteworthy attractions is the wooden roller coaster Balder, voted twice as the Best...

 in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. The ride, built by Intamin, features a hydraulic launch and opened in 2005. The tightly packed layout is a result of the lack of space available to build upon at Liseberg.

History

In 2002, Liseberg's only looping roller coaster HangOver, a Vekoma
Vekoma
Vekoma Rides Manufacturing B.V. is a roller coaster and thrill ride designer with its facilities based in the Netherlands. The company was founded in 1926 by Hendrik op het Veld under the name "Veld Koning Machinefabriek" and had first manufactured agricultural machinery and mining equipment...

 Invertigo model, was removed. The park contacted several roller coaster manufacturers with the aim of introducing a new looping ride, with the winning bid coming from Swiss company Intamin. Lars-Erik Hedin, technical director of Liseberg cited "good experiences with Balder
Balder (roller coaster)
Balder is a wooden roller coaster at the Liseberg amusement park in Gothenburg, Sweden. It opened in 2003 and was an instant success. Balder has twice, 2003 and 2005, been voted Best Wooden Tracked Roller Coaster in the world in a major international - not because it is the biggest or fastest...

, also made by Intamin, as one of the reasons the product was chosen.

Track layout

After departing the station, Kanonens 16-person trains are accelerated to 72 km/h straight into a 24 metres (78.7 ft) high top hat element. This is immediately followed by an air time hill
Air Time
Air Time is an album by the improvisational collective Air featuring Henry Threadgill, Steve McCall, and Fred Hopkins performing three of Threadgill's compositions and one each by Hopkins and McCall.-Reception:...

 and a 20 metres (65.6 ft) high vertical loop
Loop (roller coaster)
The generic roller coaster vertical loop is the most basic of roller coaster inversions. Specifically, the loop refers to a continuously upward-sloping section of track that eventually results in a complete 360 degree circle. At the top-most piece of the loop, riders are completely inverted.-...

, the first inversion of the ride. After a highly banked turnaround, the trains pass through a heartline roll before entering the brake run
Brake run
A brake run on a roller coaster is any section of track meant to slow or stop a roller coaster train. Brake runs may be located anywhere along the circuit of a coaster and may be designed to bring the train to a complete halt or to simply adjust the train's speed...

, bringing the ride to an end.

Rollbacks

As with many launched roller coasters, Kanonen is susceptible to rollbacks when the train does not gain enough momentum on the launch track in order to make it over the top-hat and rolls down backwards. Kanonen has magnetic brakes along the launch track in order to slow the train down if this happens. Rollbacks usually only happen if it is windy or the track is wet, but other factors can affect the launching system.

On June 8, 2009, the right conditions meant that a train got balanced at the top of the top-hat with 14 passengers on board.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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