Biggest wheel poses new challenges

Whereas the London Eye is a mere 135m in diameter, the Beijing version is to be 208m across, because 208 is a lucky number in Chinese, 2008 is the date of the Beijing Olympics and the authorities want it to be larger than anyone else’s. According to Ronald Yntema of Bosch Rexroth, which will once again be supplying the hydraulic drive, “We are at the physical limit” of the technologies used to build the London Eye. The larger size of the Beijing Wheel will make it much heavier and so harder to lift if it is assembled horizontally like the London Eye, and it may therefore have to be constructed vertically. To avoid unnecessary stops and starts, and the potential loss of inertial energy and revenue when this happens, there is to be a series of cars on a separate track which passengers will enter, that will then match the speed of the wheel at the bottom of its rotation to transfer passengers in and out of the cars. So successful has the London Eye been, that a new company, Great Wheel Corporation has been set up to build run and maintain all future large wheels, and Yntema said that in addition to that to be built in Beijing, a further 20 have been planned for locations that will include Dubai, Berlin, Qingdao, Orlando and Chicago.