Grona Lund Building 312 Foot Face-First Free Fall in 2017

What Sweden's Grona Lund lacks in park size it already more than makes up with towering thrill rides, and that's going to get even more intense in 2017 with the addition of Ikaros.  The park has announced that they will build a 95 meter (312 feet) free fall tower next season, to be built by Intamin and feature rotating seats that will point riders face-down before they drop.

This is the same trick that we first saw used on Busch Gardens Tampa's 335 foot drop ride, Falcon's Fury.  Grona Lund's Ikaros will have two carriages, each seating 8 riders at a time.

© Grona Lund

The attraction is named after Icarus of Greek mythology, who used homemade wings to escape capture but flew too close to the sun, melting the wax holding the wings together and sending him plummeting toward the ground.  As a nod to the story, the ride will have a sun at the very top of the tower.  During the free fall riders will experience 3.5 gs and hit speeds of more than 55 miles per hour.

Grona Lund is already home to a 400 foot tall swing ride, an older Intamin free fall with both regular and tilting seats, and a S&S tower ride.