Cyclone
Opened: 1985
Closed: 1985
Manufactured By: Huss Maschinenfabrik
Ride Model: Swing Around
Max Height: About 26 feet
Number Of Gondolas: 14
Ride Capacity: 28 (2 per gondola)
Hourly Capacity: 1,120 riders per hour
Huss Swing Around in another park. Photo: Huss Maschinenfabrik
Lagoon’s Cyclone was one of a few rides leased from Huss Maschinenfabrik for one season. It was located directly east of Jet Star 2 where the Whirlwind had been in the previous year. According to an email I received, the ride’s paint scheme was orange and red.
A former employee informed me that Cyclone was in fact moved from Worlds Of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri and it could have returned there afterwards since they had one in operation after 1985. But there’s a chance it was the one located at Kennywood in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. Kennywood also seems to have had the same kind of one-year agreement with similar Huss rides¹.
The open space where the Whirlwind and Cyclone were located was later the Jet Star Terrace which had canopies and tables, but never a permanent building. The area has been left empty for several years now with the exception of Psycho Dave’s Junkyard Maze which has used the space since around 2005 during Frightmares.
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LINKS
Photos of similar rides in Worlds Of Fun and Kennywood.
Watch a pretty crazy on-ride video on a Huss Swing Around in 1990.
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NOTES
1. This website shows the Huss Ranger and Swing Around for a short time at Kennywood. Scroll down to the year 1984.
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SOURCES
Lagoon ready for 90th season. Deseret News, 12 Apr 1985.
Kennywood. Theme Park Timelines, accessed 27 Sep 2010.
Swing Around. Huss Maschinenfabrik official website, accessed 14 Oct 2010 using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
RE: Cyclone at Lagoon. Email message to author, 10 Apr 2004.
Whirlwind update and more. Email message to author, 20 Oct 2005.
The Tri-Star was also located in that space, east of Jetstar at some point. I always thought the Tri-Star was the only ride located in the space, but learned later that other rides occupied it as well. The only ride I recall in that area was the Tri-Star because it was my favorite Lagoon ride until it was removed.
That’s right, Tri-Star was there before it was removed. Some say it was there when it first opened at Lagoon in 1979 and moved elsewhere when these rides came in.
Huh! That must have been the “temporary ride pad” for a while until Psycho Dave’s went there and then Air Race seems to have occupied it permanently.