A former shipbuilder devised this floating theme park. A Disney-fied supertanker was to dock in ports worldwide, spreading the gospel of Space Mountain and — ugh! — It's a Small World to potential Mouseketeers everywhere.
The ride promised to plunge passengers 700 feet down the side of the Stratosphere hotel in Las Vegas (at 120 mph). It would have been the tallest coaster in the world.
This one flings you off the tracks — on purpose. The passenger compartment is separated from the wheels by a support arm, and the upper portion of the split-level track drops away sometimes, giving riders the illusion of being airborne. One projected use: a re-creation of the car chase in Bullitt.
In the 1970s, some Miami folks had the bright idea to make a 150-foot-long wind tunnel and invite the public in. It fell through, but thrill-seekers take heart — Florida continues to be buffeted by actual hurricanes.
Racing around on top of the tracks is for suckers. In this concept from Gordon Rides, trains run underneath a track — a wooden one. The rickety feel of century-old coasters meets the foot-dangling precariousness of inverted coasters. What's not to love?
This ludicrous idea, sketched in 1891, involved a 10-ton "bullet" that could hold 20 people. The capsule would be dropped from the belly of the Eiffel Tower into a huge pool of water shaped like a wine glass. Sacré merde, that sounds dangerous.
