Dillinger heavy plate for
the world’s highest
Ferris wheel Ain Dubai

The eyes are getting bigger

Almost everyone knows the London Eye, the gigantic Ferris wheel on the Thames with the large glass gondolas that offer a view on London. With its newest building Ain Dubai, also called Dubai Eye, Dubai now also has such a big wheel. “Ayn” is the sixteenth letter in the Arabic alphabet and means translated “eye”.

With a total height of 250 m (820 ft), it is the tallest Ferris wheel in the world to date exceeding the Singapore Flyer (165 m, 541 ft) by 85 m, the High Roller Ferris Wheel in Las Vegas (167 m, 548 ft) by 83 m and the London Eye (135 m, 443 ft) by 115 m. The assembled hub and spindle is approximately 40 m long and 20 m high and weighs a massive 1,805 t – which is equivalent to four A380 aircrafts. Each leg of the wheel stands at a height of 126 m and is long enough to fit 15 London buses. The structure includes around 11,200 t of steel, around 33 percent more than the amount of steel used to construct the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Colossal and luxurious

The Ferris wheel of an impressive diameter of 250 m has been built on the artificially created Dubai’s luxury Bluewaters Island. In its 48 luxury gondolas, each with an area of 30 m² and made entirely of glass, 1,400 people can take place in order to enjoy the 360° view on Dubai’s most important landmarks. The gondolas are air-conditioned, as it takes 38 minutes to make a full turn. In the gondolas, information about what is seen is shown on screens.

For this record-breaking and breathtaking attraction Dillinger steel (S690QL, S460 QL, S355NL, S355ML) has been mainly used, in thicknesses of up to 200 mm.