.
Coaster
Kingdom: Tell us a bit about the history of KMG. Was there life
before the Afterburner?
Bas
Derkink (KMG): “KMG stands for Kermis Machinebouw Gaasendam, which
in English means ‘Gaasendam Fair Attraction Construction Company’.
“Gaasendam
is the surname of founder Isje Kroon’s wife. Isje started KMG about 17
years ago when he built a backflash for a Dutch showman’s Huss
Breakdance. Isje has always been into building things himself and
travelling all over Europe with self-built and fabricated rides like a
Schwarzkopf Blitzer. His father and uncles were also into the business
that built Ferris Wheels.
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The
Tropical Trip, the design of which was stolen by one of KMG's
engineers. Image: Miami
Madness |
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“When he
completed the backflash for the Breakdance (which was a unique design by
building up the backflash and floor together), he got more jobs to build
for others and to build his first Miami ride.
“He got
several engineers which drew and calculated the ride for strength. The
ride was very popular from the beginning but as Isje was just alone with
one or two employees, he could only build three Miamis a year.
“Also due
to this and some other struggles, he did not protect his copyright and
design so one of the engineers went away with the drawings. What
followed was a lot of Miamis being built in the UK; not all too good.
Until now about 28 Miamis have been built by KMG.
“The next
ride was the Discovery, a huge ride (45 tons) on only one semi-trailer
and being set up in an hour and a half! There were five of these rides
built. More employees were hired and new rides were developed.
“First
there was the Move-It 32, the only one built. The ride was unique in its
kind and on three semi-trailers. Again, the ride can be built up in 2
hours if needed due to a very smart build up system.
“This smart
building up of rides has always been the keyword for KMG rides. And
during this period smaller versions of the Move-It were developed
(18-person and 24-person version; later built under licence by Tivoli
for the USA market).
“In 1998
the first new swing was developed; up to then all swing rides had three
properties which were ignored by KMG. All the swings were driven by a
wheel on the bottom of the ride. Due to this, all rides of this kind
were enclosed (causing many people to get sick easily). Also due to the
drive wheel, the swing could not go much higher than 90-degrees from
vertical.
“From that
moment on, KMG developed its first Afterburner ride with three
sensational improvements: The ride seats had a very open structure with
suspended seats, with dangling feet. This was possible due to driving
the swing from the top; the swings pivot point.
“This was
also one of the first rides with the use of frequency inverters. With
this, AC motor control was never so easy, and made it possible to drive
a swing with much less power. So the motors were smaller and the swing
could be higher. 120-degrees to be precise.
“The
Afterburner turned out to be a success, which we did not expect. The
24-person model on two semi-trailers was a huge success and after
building 30 rides, the market dropped and we found out that the ride was
just too expensive for a lot of people.
“After
Fabbri from Italy said they could build their Afterburner 24 ride on
only one trailer (which turned out to be a disillusion for many showman
who bought the ride with this belief), KMG decided to show Fabbri how to
build an Afterburner ride on one transport.
“The Freak
Out was again a success, and just before the dollar crashed, KMG had
sold already twelve models of this 16-person ride on the Gibtown
exhibition in Florida.
“Up to now
more than 73 Afterburner type ride have been build either in a 16, 20,
24 or 32-person version.
“In the
later years, KMG has also developed some other spectacular rides like
the Experience (7 rides), Tango (6 rides), Waltzer (1 ride), X-factory
(3 rides) and the easy version of Fabbri’s Booster ride; the Speed (12
rides)”
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