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| Statistics | |||||||||||||||||||
| Manufacturer | unknown | ||||||||||||||||||
| Product | Chair-O-Plane | ||||||||||||||||||
| Designer / calculations | Ton van de Ven | ||||||||||||||||||
| Capacity | 32 guests per ride | ||||||||||||||||||
| Cabins | 16 | ||||||||||||||||||
Grote Zweefmolen was a Chair-O-Plane built by an unknown manufacturer, and used to be located at Efteling in Kaatsheuvel, North Brabant, The Netherlands.
Origin
The ride was originally bought by Efteling on January 25, 1977. A team from the park traveled to Friesland to check out the ride in a meadow. The ride was around 75 years old at that point, making its date of build around 1900. When bought, the ride was in a terrible condition. Efteling opted to fix the most crucial things immediately, and fix all the other things later, since they wanted to open it as quickly as possible. The ride later got a overhaul done by Efteling designer Ton van de Ven.[1]
Closure
The ride closed unannounced on the 20th of October, 2020. It would get scrapped and replaced with a new version, this new version would recieve the same name and design, but would be build by Wooddesign Amusement Rides and opened on November 19, 2020. No parts of the old ride where reused for this version, even the decorational panels where remade from scratch.[2]
Location
The ride was located within the "Anton Pieckplein" (roughly translating to "Anton Piecksquare"), an area of the park themed to an old timey Dutch village in the middle of a classic funfair. Other rides in this area are Anton Pieckcarrousel, Kleine Zweefmolen, Vermolenmolen and Vlindermolen. The area received a facelift in 2003, adding more theming and removing some older rides (such as the Jeepmolen).[3]
Etymology
Grote Zweefmolen is Dutch for "Big Chair-O-Plane"