FARMINGTON — With its banking, looping and rolling motion, Lagoon’s newest $2.5 million attraction, called Air Race, will give its passengers the experience of an acrobatic airplane flight.
“There is a lot of action associated with it,” Lagoon Vice President of Marketing Dick Andrew said of the ride. Park officials hope to debut Air Race this weekend in conjunction with the season opening of the Farmington amusement park.
The ride accommodates up to 24 riders at one time in six four-seat gondolas. It combines a 6 rpm central ride rotation motion around a tower, with an arm rotation that provides riders with various “multi-vectored sensations,” park officials said.
Because of the dynamics of the ride, participants must be in good health, free from heart conditions, neck and back injury, and must be at least 48 inches tall.
“Prior to riding, we suggest that guests observe Air Race in operation to determine its suitability relative to their own physical condition,” Lagoon officials said in a prepared statement.
“We’ve never had anything that looked this,” Andrew said of the ride, which is manufactured by Zamperla of Italy.
Andrew said the ride rotates, while the passengers are spinning around in another separate motion.
“The action takes place up to 26 feet above the ground, and riders feel the acceleration of almost 4G, right-side-up and upside down,” Lagoon officials said.
The ground measurement of the ride when at rest is 52 feet in diameter, with an 82-foot operational diameter.
“It will be a nice addition,” Andrew said of the attraction currently being assembled on the north end of the park, on a cement pad east of the Jet Star II roller coaster ride.
Andrew said the ride, to serve about 480 riders per hour, is included in the cost of the all-day passport.
The park opens at 10 a.m. on weekends, weather permitting, beginning Saturday. The park opens daily beginning June 2.
The cost for a single-day passport is $44.95 for those 51 inches tall to 64 years of age; $39.95 for kinders, age 4 to 50 inches tall, and seniors, 65 and older; and $28.95 for toddlers, age 3 or younger.
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