Ferris wheels are enjoying great interest in recent years, but what has been the evolution and innovation of transportable Ferris wheels in the last quarter of a century?
 
THE EVOLUTION OF TRANSPORTABLE FERRIS WHEELS IN THE LAST 25 YEARS
by Enrico Fabbri
 
Introduction
The Ferris wheel is one of the first man-made attractions and is still one of the foundations of our industry. The first attractions of this type were depicted in Arab and Indian drawings dating back more than a thousand years. These early models were obviously small in size and were pushed by hand. Some recent videos available on YouTube show recent constructions, yet they are almost identical to those early wheels. It is however George Ferris from Pittsburgh who has been attributed with the modern success of this attraction.

Back in 1893, for the Universal Exposition in Chicago, he in fact constructed the first large Ferris wheel, a giant measuring over 76m in diametre, with 36 cabins, each one carrying up to 60 passengers. It was a huge success, so much so that in the following years other large Ferris wheels were built in Paris and Vienna. Interest in this attraction has grown greatly in recent years, to the point where they have often become icons at events in major cities or a reference point for tourist areas. To summarise the situation today, we first need to go back over what has happened in the last 25 years.
 
1990s
In the early 1990s, transportable wheel manufacturers were concentrated in Italy and the Netherlands. ‘Transportable’ in this case means an attraction that is not fixed permanently to the ground via concrete foundations. Manufacturers thus found 2 solutions to make these attractions transportable: first installing a folding structure on special semi-trailers, then creating a special stand to be placed on the ground and then used to install the entire structure.
Biancardi (a company from Bergantino, Italy) was making small Ferris wheels, in the semi-trailer version, with a maximum height between 16 and 18 metres. FAR Fabbri (also from Bergantino), had just built its first Ferris wheel, in the semi-trailer version, with a height of 20m (this was in 1988) and started to make 2 new larger models, Ruota Panoramica 25 and Giant Wheel 34, both in the semi-trailer version.

The latter was sent to California in 1991 and was a hit, indeed Chance (a US company) copied the style based on 3 semi-trailers, developing one of their models with a height of 28m, also installed on semi-trailers, called Century. Other important players in the construction of Ferris wheels were SDC and Spaggiari and Barbieri (Reggio Emilia, Italy), which even before the 90s had made Ferris wheels with heights up to 18m, also on semi-trailers. In the Netherlands, on the other hand, 2 major manufacturers were operating in those years, Nauta Bussink and Mondial.

There was strong competition between the 2 to conquer the German market. Both began making 33-metre model Ferris wheels, and later 38-metre models and finally 44 metres. The German market was an important one: it was the only market where the attractions made good money and where there were professionals who could install and transport these large structures efficiently. At a certain stage the 2 manufacturers found their niche, with Nauta Bussink specialising in transportable Ferris wheels (on a base) while Mondial specialised in trailer-mounted models.
Gerstlaurer (Germany), deriving from a branch of the historic and important manufacturer Anton Schwarzkopf, made a few wheels, many of which transportable with base. The last to be made by this manufacturer, 60m high, is still operating at Nigloland park (France) and has been moved just a couple of times to the Christmas market in Metz (France).
 
Early 2000s
The true international boom in Ferris wheels began in 2000. The city of London sponsored the construction of a large wheel located on the Thames, with a height of 135m (Millennium Wheel, a name that has since changed to become The London Eye), with inauguration planned to celebrate the new millennium. The city of Paris took up the challenge and organised an event focused on Ferris wheels. Paris brought together all the existing Ferris wheels in Europe and installed them on its main avenue (the Champs Elysees). It was a great event that changed the history of transportable Ferris wheels.
For the event Nauta Bussink built a special Ferris wheel, 60m high and mounted on a pedestal. The attraction had 42 themed cabins with a maximum capacity of 252 people. It was called La Grande Roue de Paris in memory of the first huge wheel built about a century earlier. This attraction that had been installed in the center of such an important capital was a very strong attraction for operators around the world. This attraction featured 2 particular innovations.

The first was the cabin: no longer a classical octagonal ‘gondola’, but rather a cabin shaped like a ‘hut’ that folded up telescopically during transport. The second innovative feature involved the rotary structure: the number of arms was halved, with 2 cabins on each. This new combination represented by the cabins and the lower number of arms brought a change in style that still has repercussions today. This attraction recently operated in Rimini (Italy) over a few summer seasons and is today owned by the Freij Group.
A few years later Mondial also built a new Ferris wheel, 50m high, in the semi-trailer version. Until then it had always been difficult to achieve great heights for attractions mounted on semi-trailers; as the height increased, in fact, so did the length and the weight of the semi-trailers making up the base. There were some fine-tuning problems, but in the end this wheel, which itself incorporated the style innovations introduced by Nauta Bussink, was put into operation in the UK and is still operated by the Mellors Group during Winter Wonderland in London.
In 2004 FC Fabbri Park (Calto, Italy) made a 40-metre Ferris wheel installed on 3 semi-trailers and then also manufactured a smaller 30-metre version installed on 2 semi-trailers. These versions retained the old style of the cabins and number of arms, which are better suited to smaller Ferris wheels.
 
Evolution of Cabins
Around 2002, Ronald Bussink began to offer the market enclosed cabins, the same used as mountain cable cars, rather than the classic cabins or gondolas on Ferris wheels. This important aesthetic improvement succeeded in changing the Ferris wheel from an amusement park ride to a true tourist attraction. The new cabins, mostly built in Switzerland, gave unique elegance to this very traditional attraction. This innovation drove Bussink’s sales around the world, both fixed and transportable versions, especially in Great Britain.
The first transportable Ferris wheel with the new Swiss style (red) cabins was sold to Billy Stevens, a major English operator who at the time was working at the Global Village (Dubai, UAE) and was expanding into Asia. This 60-metre wheel was installed in Shanghai (China) with enormous Comsuccess.

Others followed with the same height and always in the transportable version, which were sold to the Elliot Hall Group in Great Britain, and were operated in many cities in the country. Recently all these Ferris wheels have been bought by Freij El Zein, the leisure entrepreneur whose group today has the largest number of transportable big wheels in the world, all originals made by Nauta Bussink / Ronald Bussink.
 
Since 2010
A few years ago Bussink sold to Vekoma (famous roller coaster manufacturer) some of its Ferris wheel designs in order to devote itself to its new R80XL. Vekoma never built any Ferris wheel according to the original Bussink designs; the few placed on the market recently are models that were in stock at the time of the sale by Bussink.
Bussink then designed a new big transportable Ferris wheel, with a height of almost 80m (78m to be exact). To build this, the Dutch designer commissioned Maurer (Germany), a leading manufacturer of roller coasters for theme parks. It was a very challenging project, in which Bussink had to exploit all its experience to simplify the assembly and transport procedures and at the same time ensure an elegant structure. Initially, the Bussink / Maurer team decided to make 5 units at the same time, including 3 in the transportable version and 2 for permanent installation. Completing this project meant making the highest transportable Ferris wheel in the world.
Bussink, however, decided to innovate once again, creating a Ferris wheel design that could be either fixed to the ground or fixed to a mobile stand. The rotating structure could accommodate 54 Swiss cabins for 8 people, or 27 Swiss cabins for 12. This solution enabled the company to invest in one single project, although allowing customers to personalise the configuration. In true Bussink style, there was another important innovation: it used just 6 masts to support the Ferris wheel (instead of the classic 8). This solution allowed a wider front footboard to offer passengers more comfort, including an immense aluminium roof equipped with a LED lighting system.
Bussink renewed other technical aspects, ranging from the central hub (able to be dismantled into 2 parts for transport) to systems to simplify installation and levelling. All details that would take too long to explain here. The first R80XL (SP version mounted on a mobile stand) installed for final testing in Munich in December 2012, made its debut the following summer in Puebla, Mexico, entering the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest transportable Ferris wheel in the world.
And the other Dutch company, Mondial? Mondial was not standing still. It also aimed to increase the height of its wheels and in November 2015 inaugurated one (RR80) in Paris, the Place de la Concorde, again in the semi-trailer version, with an impressive height of 78m and with 48 cabins.

This is a technically very complex design that required all the experience Mondial had acquired in previous models. It’s not easy to combine the needs of a large Ferris wheel with the technical constraints dictated by semi-trailers. Mondial already had patented many technical solutions that it implemented to simplify the assembly of these large attractions in the semi-trailer version. The RR80 in Paris is owned by Marcel Campion, the well-known French operator who was also the promoter of the Ferris wheel event in Paris in 2000.
 
Today
Over the past 2 years, the interest in Ferris wheels among city councils has increased, with the attractions in demand for short events lasting a few months or longer periods of 2/3 years. As can be imagined, in the case of large cities the authorities do not allow the permanent installation of these attractions in their old town centres, which is why there is increased demand for large transportable wheels.
Bussink has stopped building 40/60 metre high Ferris wheels, but those it made are in great demand on the used attraction market, thanks to their easy assembly and high construction quality. Mondial has thus remained the only manufacturer of large Ferris wheels in the semi-trailer version, both because they are very expensive and because they are too complex to manage for road transport (they are considered oversized vehicles in terms of length and weight).
Other manufacturers are therefore taking off in Europe, using the Bussink style as their main reference: Lamberink (Netherlands) has built the wheels up to 33 metres high and now is working on a 44-metre version.

Technical Park (Italy) has recently built a 45-metre Ferris wheel. Although many operators believe that it is quite simple to design a Ferris wheel, this is not true when the structures are very large. There are many details to consider, and quality procedures to be followed during construction to ensure a product that can stand the test of time. Research is ongoing, and I think Bussink and Mondial will introduce a few more surprises in coming years.

 

 

 

Written by Mr. Enrico Fabbri enrico@fabbrirides.com
Article originally published in Games Industry (Italy) magazine
Original date: January 2017

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