West Mifflin, Pennsylvania - Kennywood has announced that “something wicked” will be coming to Kennywood for the 2012 season. Replacing the departing Pitt Fall freefall attraction at the park will be Black Widow, a high-thrill Giant Discover attraction from Zamperla.

The Black Widow will seat as many as 40 guests in outward-facing seats around in a giant circle, legs dangling freely, with over-the-shoulder-restraints holding them in. The circle guests are seated on then begins to rotate, and the pendulum they hang at the bottom of begins to swing, reaching a peak height of 146-feet and swinging guests well past being perpendicular to the ground—120 degrees. No doubt the ride will be packed with high speeds, strong forces, unnerving airtime, and plenty of movement to disorient riders in the most thrilling way possible. Kennywood’s GM Jerome Gibas said of the ride, “Black Widow will have a combination of height, airtime, and thrill factor.”

To be located in the Lost Kennywood section of the park, the ride will serve as a replacement for the recently departed Pitt Fall freefall ride that stood tall at Kennywood for over a decade and a half, which saw its last day of operation on Sunday, September 18, 2011. The ride originally opened back in 1997, where it stood as the tallest freefall attraction at the time at a still-massive 251 feet. The second-generation Intamin freefall ride plummeted riders at speeds of up to 65 mph, giving them a gut-wrenching 4 seconds of pure airtime.

Spokesman Jeff Filicko told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that the ride is expected to go vertical in March or April of next year, and should be ready by the parks daily operation on May 17, possibly earlier.