YouTube Pick – How does an S&S tower ride work?

In this video from the Ryan The Ride Mechanic channel, he talks through the mechanics of S&S Tower Rides (like Launch Pad) that use compressed air to send riders skyward. The video includes Ryan talking through the specifics of the mechanics and also a model that has put together in his garage to further demonstrate how they work.

Introduced in 1997 as Playstation: The Ride, the ride was one of the earliest European installations of the S&S Space Shot concept and was relaunched in 2025 as Launch Pad.

The channel features a number of videos that talk through some of the geekier aspects of theme park engineering – if that subject matter is of interest to you, you may wish to check those out.