Rising gracefully into the sky is the Huss UFO - the biggest of the Round Up style rides ever made!

The Round-Up was an American ride invented in 1954 by Frank Hrubetz and proved popular in parks and fairs around the world thanks to its compact foot print and high capacity.

By the 1970’s fairs in West Germany were booming with ever bigger and more advanced rides and the Round-Up was simply not big enough or impressive enough for German fairgrounds.

Hot off the heels of one of Huss’s biggest successes the Enterprise came the UFO in 1978.

The UFO features 12 spokes with a gondola on the end holding four riders each giving the ride a total capacity of 48 riders.

The diameter of the wheel was 56 feet and when fully vertical would be 65 feet high.

At 69 feet by 74 feet the UFO was a massive machine but it suited the standard German Fairground footprint

Many UFO’s were adorned with a massive backflash while at night they were brilliantly lit, usually in a star pattern on the spokes while the wheel rim perimeter was lined with white pin spot lights highlighting the sheer size of UFO and could be seen from a good distance away.

The UFO was a moderate seller with some sources stating that up to 25 were sold mainly through the late 1970’s and early 1980’s with most going to showmen in West-Germany and the new generation of super parks that had sprung up all over the United States throughout the 1970’s.

Two Huss UFO’s would eventually find their way to England. The first was UFO 2000 which opened West Midlands Safari Park from at least 1986 to 1988. This featured the usual massive Huss style backflash with a painted fantasy space scene.

The second was originally new to German showman Feldi in 1978 and would eventually found its way to Flamingo Land in Yorkshire by the end of 1994.

The machine had been stripped of its elaborate flash and lighting, painted in a bland white and orange colour scheme.

10 years later the ride would get sold on to English showman John Wesseldine in 2004 would travelled the ride extensively around the East Midlands to Nottingham Goose Fair, Nottingham Bonfire Fair, Warsop Carnival, Long Eaton as well as further afield to Great Dorset Steam Fair, Doncaster and London.

John Wesseldine would add the lighting back and improve the the visual ride adding artwork and splats.

Huss UFO’s, while not as common as the massively successful Enterprise can still be found operating around the world after over 40 years since they were built including the prototype machine - Alpha 1 in Germany, UFO Speed in France and some park models such as the UFO in Canada’s Wonderland called Night Mares.

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