The "Flying Cars" ride at Riverview Park in Chicago (1954)

 

Amid screams of delight and roaring of wheels, customers at Rierview Park in Chicago have been taking frightened pleasure out of a ride called "Flying Cars". Riders are strapped tightly into little cars attached to flangers on the drum. As the drum starts turning they roll back and forth. When the drum has picked up speed, an operator shouts, "Put on your brakes!" and the cars, now fixed to the surface of the drum, whirl around and around for two minutes at a top speed of 30 mph. Then the brakes are released, the drum slows to a stop, the riders totter off and five mroe happy customers approach. Imported from Europe, the contraption has attracted more than 1,000 custoemrs a night, many of them content just to watch. No one ahs been hurt, but the operators make a small extra profit from change which falls out of the customers' pockets in mid-air.

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images and info provided by the LIFE Magazine / LIFE Magazine International / LIFE Magazine Atlantic ARCHIVE from the Zetu Harrys Collection