Copyright © Hurri (Daniel Pledger) 2005-
It all started in summer 2007. The park geared up for a brand new ‘world’s first’ type of ride. We all watched as the planning application went in and got approved, the Evening Echo ran a story about it (including the concept image shown above) and Fervec showed off their rather ambiguous website.
Fervec came to the park and started doing their surveys of the area, signs went up around the park, it all got very exciting. Then winter came, and close season, and we saw... nothing. Then in December the opening time of February 2008 was officially pushed back, all the marketing quickly disappeared and the Echo reported that construction would begin after the summer peak in September 2008. It didn’t.
Other manufacturers were now releasing similar ride concepts (which frankly all looked a bit better) and Fervec replied to an email from one of the AIGF forum members: “The AERONAUT ride programme is currently undergoing a lengthy manufacturing/testing phase. The emphasis of this development lies in setting new standards in terms of safety and reliability. We will let you know as soon as a release date is available and where the products are sold.” So not only’ had it not been built, the prototype model was still undergoing what was effectively beta testing.
In October 2008 we were assured the ride would be ready for the peak of 2009. Close
season came, and went, and the assurance went from it definitely coming in 2009 to
definitely NOT coming in 2009. One member of the forum texted the ‘all-
The ride was never ready to go and Adventure Island were sold a concept, but one which has so far failed to materialise, apparently due to the complete disregard for the laws of physics that the concept contains.
The latest news we’ve heard about Aeronaut is that it will be constructed in February 2010. Whether it will or not remains to be seen, but I think the lesson learnt here is don’t buy a ride from a company that has never built a ride and specialises in electricity pylons. 2010 will tell all, but please don’t get your hopes up.