Wiener Riesenrad

The Wiener Riesenrad, or simply Riesenrad, is a 64.75-metre (212-foot) tall Ferris wheel located at the entrance to the Prater amusement park in Leopoldstadt, Austria’s capital Vienna’s second district. It is one of Vienna’s most prominent tourist attractions, and for many people, it represents both the area and the city. It was built in 1897 and was the world’s highest existing Ferris wheel from 1920 to 1985.

The Wiener Riesenrad is shaped like a trident and has a total diameter of 60.96 meters (200 English feet), which corresponds to the diameter of the wagons’ suspension axles.The outside diameter of the wheel is 55.78 meters (183 feet), while the inner diameter is 49.68 meters (163 feet).The peak is 64.75 meters above the earth.

The spinning structure weighs 244.85 tons, whereas the overall weight of all iron structures is 430.05 tons.The Ferris wheel’s axis is 10.78 meters long, 0.5 meters wide, and weighs 16.3 tons.

Two motors with a combined output of 15 kilowatts power the drive, which is connected to each other through a shaft.They use belts to power two flywheels.The torque is delivered via friction shoes after the driving power is injected into the two cable drives on the exterior of the wheel rim via belt pulleys and a two-stage gear each.A 3.5 ton weight is holding the rope taut.Although each of the two motors can move the wheel on its own, two more, smaller motors are integrated into the drive system for safety; in the case of a power outage, an emergency generator keeps the power supply running.Finally, the power transmission system is constructed such that the Ferris wheel may be rotated manually.

The Ferris wheel’s periphery speed is a maximum of 0.75 meters per second (2.7 kilometers per hour), therefore a complete revolution takes 255 seconds.The actual time of one revolution is significantly longer and depends on the amount of people, as the Ferris wheel is only moved the distance between two wagons to allow guests to board and exit.

The Riesenrad in Vienna was regarded the biggest Ferris wheel in the world after the destruction of the Ferris wheel in Blackpool (with a height of 67 meters) in 1928, and it was only in 1985 that the Technocosmos (later called Technostar) with a height of 85 meters in Tsukuba, Japan overtook it.