Hersheypark* - Roto-Jet (from Pontchartrain Beach) picture link.Tykkimaki - Roto-Jet (from Linnanmaki) picture link.Knoebels - Roto-Jet (from Freedomland originally at Forest Park Highlands) picture link.1961 Cedar Point (removed after 1986 season) Preliminary list of parks that still have Klaus Jet rides.1958 CNE (Hughes concession 1959 model).1956 Disneyland picture link Satellite Jets (8).1956 Cerbini (traveling and at Suburban Park, Manlius in 1959 and Wonderland, Coney Island in 1960).These links are current as of 2 Preliminary (partial) list of early North American installations Roto-Jets (21) Note that all picture links below are to other sites, and should open in separate windows. This patent was issued in 1963, with both the U.S. In one embodiment, the tower and the orientation of the tilted axis are stationary, while in another embodiment, the tower and tilted axis rotate independently of the main sweep rotation (but at lower speed). Haug's patent # 3104103 describes an improvement and simplification in which the carrier for the sweeps tilts, but not the tower. However, Wedemeyer's firm had ceased importing rides, and it does not appear that any of these reached the U.S.
This patent was filed in 1957 and issued in 1961, and cites a German patent application dated 1956.įurther improvements and variations were produced by the Klaus firm, including the Hurricane X (1963) and Mirage (1966). The Satellite Jet/Titan is described by Mathias Haug's US Patent # 2983509 (assigned to Kaspar Klaus). Eight Satellite Jets were imported from 1957-1959. The Satellite at Lakeside Park is another example, but the tilting mechanism no longer operates. A ride of this type was found at Whalom Park until recently. In this version of the ride, the mechanism that elevates the sweeps carrier also tilts the entire tower. Four units were imported in 1956-1957.Īn improved lifting version of the ride was introduced by Klaus in 1957 and imported by Wedemeyer under the name Satellite Jet. Wedemeyer advertised these rides for the 1957 season under the name Strato-Jets. One was imported by Wedemeyer and installed at Disneyland in 1956 (Astro-Jets). In addition to the rider-controlled elevation of the sweeps, the carrier for the sweeps is raised once the ride is in motion. Klaus produced several units of a lifting version beginning at the end of 1953. No patent corresponding to this ride has been found. Essentially identical rides (except for the decorative tower) appear to have been produced by Romolo Fabbri in Italy around 1950 and by George Maxwell & Sons in the UK in 1952. The Roto Jets/Hurricane may have been a copy of an earlier ride. In all, one used ride and twenty new rides were imported from 1953 to 1957. Several rides were sold at the end of 1954, and in 1955, the new Roto-Jet was a big hit at Rye Playland. The first permanent installation in the U.S. and exhibited under the name Roto-Jet at Coney Island (NY) and several fairs in 1953. The fifth unit produced (in 1952) was brought into the U.S. Klaus began producing Hurricane rides in 1951, with the initial unit being sold to the German showman Koch. In fact, the Astro Orbiter will have 11 rotations per minute and Magic Kingdom’s Astro Orbiter averages traveling around 1.2 million miles a year! In addition, the Magic Kingdom’s Astro Orbiter is 2 stories above the loading area for the People Mover.ROTO-JETS, STRATO-JETS, AND SATELLITE JETSThese rides were manufactured by the firm of Kaspar Klaus in Memmingen, Germany, and imported into the U.S. The ride itself can really make you feel like you are flying through the air, especially atop the People Mover in the Magic Kingdom. It wasn’t until years later that Disney Imagineers decided to name Star Jets to Astro Orbiter and redesign its look with the premiere of “The New Tomorrowland.” In 1994 a renovation of the Astro Orbiter in the Magic Kingdom the focal point of the ride was changed from the Saturn V rocket to instead feature various planets floating around the rockets. The original attraction, named Star Jets, which were actually miniature replicas of the Apollo-Saturn rockets, in 1974 when Walt Disney World expanded their version of Tomorrowland to include the new attractions, Space Mountain and The Carousel of Progress which was being moved from Disneyland. The Astro Orbiter located in Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland also went through a name change as well before Imagineers settled on Astro Orbiter.
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