Kanonen
Kanonen ("the cannon") was a steel roller coaster located at Liseberg amusement park in Gothenburg, Sweden. Built by Intamin, the ride featured a hydraulic launch and opened in 2005. The tightly packed layout is the result of a limited area to house the ride. On 30 December 2016, Kanonen closed permanently and was replaced by Valkyria, a Bolliger & Mabillard dive coaster.
| Kanonen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Liseberg | |
| Location | Liseberg |
| Coordinates | 57°41′35.76″N 11°59′43.49″E |
| Status | Removed |
| Opening date | April 23, 2005 |
| Closing date | December 30, 2016 |
| Cost | 50,000,000 SEK |
| Replaced by | Valkyria |
| General statistics | |
| Type | Steel – Launched |
| Manufacturer | Intamin |
| Designer | Werner Stengel |
| Model | Accelerator Coaster |
| Height | 24 m (79 ft) |
| Length | 440 m (1,440 ft) |
| Speed | 75 km/h (47 mph) |
| Inversions | 2 |
| Duration | 1 min 13 sec |
| Max vertical angle | 90° |
| Capacity | 930 riders per hour |
| Acceleration | 0 to 72 km/h in 2 seconds |
| Height restriction | 140 cm (4 ft 7 in) |
| Trains | 2 trains with 4 cars. Riders are arranged 2 across in 2 rows for a total of 16 riders per train. |
| Kanonen at RCDB Pictures of Kanonen at RCDB | |
| Video | |
A video of the ride. | |
History
In 2002, Liseberg's only looping roller coaster HangOver, a Vekoma Invertigo model, was removed. The park contacted several roller coaster manufacturers with the aim of introducing a new looping ride, with the winning bid coming from Swiss company Intamin. Lars-Erik Hedin, technical director of Liseberg said "Due to the good experiences with Balder and the impressive catapult launch we decided to mandate Intamin again with the project".[1]
Closure and relocation
In 2016, Liseberg announced that Kanonen would close to be replaced by a B&M dive coaster called Valkyria in 2018. 30 December 2016 was Kanonen's last day, it was then dismantled and sold afterwards.
On 19 July 2018, the roller coaster was announced to have been sold to Lost Island Water Park located in Waterloo, Iowa.,[2] with plans to be included within a theme park expansion of the complex with a planned opening in 2022.[3]
Track layout
After departing the station, Kanonen's 16-person trains are accelerated to 72 km/h straight into a 24 metres (78.7 ft) high top hat element. This is immediately followed by an air time hill and a 20 metres (65.6 ft) high vertical loop, the first inversion of the ride. After a highly banked turnaround, the trains pass through a heartline roll before entering the brake run, bringing the ride to an end.[4]
Rollbacks
As with many launched roller coasters, Kanonen was susceptible to rollbacks when the train does not gain enough momentum on the launch track in order to make it over the top-hat and rolls down backwards. Kanonen had magnetic brakes along the launch track in order to slow the train down if this happens. Rollbacks usually happen if there is strong winds or the track is wet, but other factors can affect the launching system.
On 8 June 2009, the right conditions meant that a train got balanced at the top of the top-hat with 14 riders on board.[5]
References
- Peschel, Jochen. "Kanonen - great firepower at Liseberg". Coasters and More. Retrieved 11 October 2007.
- "Kanonen finds new life". CoasterForce. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
- "Pandemic doesn't phase Lost Island Theme Park plans". Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
- "Kanonen". Liseberg. Archived from the original on 13 December 2016. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
- Fredriksson, Elin; Sahlberg, Anders; Höglund, Jan; Svensson, Björn (8 June 2009). "Lisebergsdramat över". Göteborgs-Posten (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 5 September 2018.