Taylor Swift 1989 World Tour

McLaren Engineering Group provided engineering services for The 1989 World Tour, Taylor Swift’s fourth world concert tour, which visited four continents and promoted her “1989” album. Work included mainstage deck elements, band risers and self-climbing lifts – as well as rigging for lighting, video and sound for both indoor and outdoor venues.

Propeller Stage Element

McLaren engineered a “propeller” stage unit, a 100-foot-long truss designed to be semi-modular, allowing it to be installed in large and small venues. In addition to a tilting axis, the propeller was equipped with a central bearing and a dedicated motor, allowing it to rotate about its center at a maximum rate of 1.5 RPM—a 7.8 foot-per-second speed at the extreme ends.

The entertainment engineering design accounted for both strength and serviceability concerns including weight, lifting capacity, touring load in/out capabilities, deflection and natural frequency issues, and both public and performer safety. The design of such a complex machine required constant communication with the technical team at TAIT to ensure its capacity, safety and reliability. The final product was a safe and reliable machine capable of touring internationally with consistent performance.

Additional Services

Additional engineering services McLaren Engineering Group provided include structural analysis, fabrication and installation inspection, mobile stage structures design, static and dynamic analysis, range of motion study, and staging structures design.