History of Swing Carousel Rides

Swing ride is a variant of a carousel ride – a fairground ride that has chairs suspended by chains from the top of the carousel instead of seats shaped like animals. Some can even tilt its top. This ride is also called a swing carousel, wave swinger, yo-yo, Chair-O-Planes or a swinger. 

Swing rides are the earliest forms of carousels. They existed in ancient Byzantium and were made with ropes and baskets that spun in circles around center pole and carried people. After that people started making carousels inspired by medieval cavalry games but swing rides survived until today and, some say, are even more popular today especially among the adults (although there are smaller swing rides for children). When the amusement parks started appearing, at the beginning of the 20th century, swing rides were one of the most common rides in them. Chair-O-Planes was first made in Germany in 1972 by a Zierer, company that still makes amusement rides today, and Franz Schwarzkopf. Since then many other manufacturers made their own versions of the Chair-O-Planes. Today, swing rides are made from small versions that have chairs 50cm above the ground to those placed on a high beams that spin people more than 100 meters high. Some have rotating platform that is always in horizontal position while other start tilting at some point during the ride (wave swingers).

Source from: http://www.historyofcarousels.com/carousel-history/history-of-the-swing-carousels/