Z Roller Coaster

A dozen riders on an Arkansas roller coaster spent half an hour hanging upside down 150 feet above the ground after a power outage shut down the attraction.

It took about 30 minutes for the city Fire Department to rescue the riders using a ladder truck Saturday evening, said Aundrea Crary, spokeswoman for the Springs & Crystal Falls amusement park.

Spectators cheered when the riders were brought to the ground from the highest point of a loop on the X-Coaster, but one passenger threw up after reaching safety.

The X-Coaster was one of several rides brought to a halt by the outage that originated somewhere near the park.

You could tell who got off the (X-Coaster) because their faces were red, said Angela Salter. She was riding the Gauntlet, another coaster, and said park employees worked quickly to free her.

Read the rest of this entry »

It wont go quite as fast as the speed demons driven by racing car legend, Dale Earnhardt, but the new coaster coming to Carowinds that bears his nickname, the Intimidator, will race at speeds up to 80 mph. The hypercoaster will also soar 232 feet in the air and offer loads of airtime.

* Type of coaster: Hypercoaster
* Height: 232 feet
* First drop angle: 74 degrees
* First drop: 211 feet
* Top speed: Up to 80 mph
* Track length: 5316 feet
* Ride time: 3:33

The Intimidator Hypercoaster Will Have Riders Hyped Up–Way Up
Like all great hypercoasters, Intimidator will focus on height, speed, and airtime. When it opens in 2010, it will be the tallest, fastest, and, um, airtimiest coaster at Carowinds. It will not include any inversions. But it will include eight drops, many of which will be one right after another, that will deliver the sweet elixir that coaster junkies crave, airtime.

Read the rest of this entry »

Kennywoods wonderful collection of roller coasters includes its classic Jazz-age woodies, Racer, Thunderbolt, and Jack Rabbit, the latter of which dates back to 1921. For its seventh thrill machine, however, the park will be going decidedly New Age. While Kennywood has yet to name the new coaster, which is set to debut in May 2010, it has revealed that the high-tech ride will use Linear Synchronous Motor (LSM) technology to launch passengers from 0 to 50 mph in 3 seconds.
Kennywoods 2010 Coaster Stats

* Type of coaster: LSM Magnetic Launch
* Height: 95 feet
* Ascent angle: 90 degrees
* First drop angle: 90 degrees
* Top speed: 50 mph
* Track length: 2100 feet
* Ride time: 65 seconds

Read the rest of this entry »

#10. Superman – Ride of Steel

Park: Six Flags Darien Lake

Location: Corfu, New York

Designer: Intamin AG

Class: Steel; Mega

Year of 1st ride: 1999

Read the rest of this entry »

Despite its relatively low height and short ride, it’s no wonder why Raven is a fan favorite. The coaster’s relentless speed and delirious airtime combine with tunnels and a race through dense woods to create a near-nirvana coaster experience.

Raven Up-Front Info

• Type of coaster: Wood Out and Back Terrain Coaster
• Thrill scale (0=Wimpy!, 10=Yikes!): 6.5
• Height: 80 feet
• First drop: 85 feet
• Top speed: 48 mph
• Height requirement: 48 inches
• Ride time: 1:30 minutes  Read the rest of this entry »

A dueling roller coaster features two (or more) roller coasters, usually with a similar layout, built close to each other. The rides are designed to do just as the name indicates: to duel. The coaster’s layout often consists of strategic maneuvering to produce near-misses between the two coaster trains, adding to the excitement. As of 2007, the only inverted dueling coaster in the world is at Islands of Adventure, Orlando, Florida. The Dueling Dragons coasters reach a top speed of about 55 MPH (85 km/h) and get within 12 inches (30 cm, or 1 foot) of each other at some points. Each dragon’s 2 and a half minute flight includes a total of 5 inversions, including a zero-g roll, a Cobra roll, two corkscrews, and two vertical loops, for an excellent riding experience.

Examples Dueling Dragons, the world’s only dueling inverted coaster at Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida Racer, at Kennywood Park in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania. Lightning Racer, a Great Coasters International (GCI) built wooden roller coaster at Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania Batman & Robin: The Chiller, the world’s only dueling launched roller coaster at Six Flags Great Adventure Gwazi, also a GCI wooden roller coaster, at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida. aeral view Twisted Twins (Twisted Sisters) at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville, Kentucky

The corkscrew (B&M: flat spin/ wing over) is a roller coaster inversion which most often resembles a loop that has been ‘widened’ in terms of the element’s entrance and exit points being a distance away from each other. The main difference is that riders are inverted at a point angled 90 horizontally from the incoming track, whereas in a loop, the inversion comes parallel to the track, but travelling in the opposite direction.

It was named due to its resemblance to the corkscrew tool used to remove corks from bottles. Riders enter the corkscrew element and are transported significantly to the left or right while being flipped upside down 360 degrees.

Due to them being much smaller than many elements, corkscrews are normally found towards the end of layouts, and often exist in pairs. This may take the form of a double corkscrew, where the end of one leads straight into the next. It is also common to see interlocking corkscrews, where the entrances and exits are parallel, but both corkscrews cross over the other corkscrew’s track.

Corkscrew is also the name of several roller coasters, including a three-loop coaster at Valleyfair in Shakopee, Minnesota, a three loop roller coaster at Cedar point in Sandusky, Ohio as well as a two-loop coaster at Genting Highlands theme park, Malaysia.

The first roller coaster with a corkscrew element was the Arrow Dynamics designed Corkscrew, opened in 1975 at Knott’s Berry Farm. In 1989, the ride was relocated to Silverwood where it continues to operate today.

An interesting note is that Bolliger & Mabillard design their corkscrews so that the train “snaps” through the top of the inversion, whereas Arrow Dynamics and Vekoma design their corkscrews with constant curvature.

Boomerang is a model of roller coaster built by Vekoma, and named after the sporting implement based on the traditions of the Indigenous Australians. The first Boomerang began operation in 1984, and it has since become one of the most repeated roller coaster designs in the world, with 43 operating roller coasters as of 2006, and another 3 “Standing But Not Operating” or in storage. An additional 9 amusement parks have operated this design, but the roller coaster has since been demolished or dismantled and sold to another park.

Design and operation

The Boomerang consists of a single train with seven cars, capable of carrying 28 passengers. The ride begins when the train is pulled backwards from the station and up a lift hill, before being released. After being released, the train passes through the station, enters a Cobra roll element (referred to as a boomerang by the designers), then travels through a vertical loop. Upon exiting the loop, the train runs up a second lift hill, parallel to the first. Once out of momentum, the train is towed to the top of the lift hill, and is held for several seconds before being released; travelling through the roller coaster in reverse before returning to the station.

Boomerang coasters have, on rare occasions, become stalled, often in the Boomerang element. As a precaution, many Boomerang coasters, including the newer Giant Inverted Boomerang models, are built with an access platform just under the Cobra Roll/Boomerang element.

Variant designs

There are two main design variants based on the Boomerang layout, both also produced by Vekoma.

Invertigo

The first variant is the Invertigo, which while retaining the same layout as the Boomerang, was an inverted roller coaster. In addition, the two rows of seats in each car were back-to-back, so the riders in the back row of each car would be facing those in the front of the trailing car. First operating in 1997, there are four Invertigos in operation as of 2006, and an additional park has operated this ride in the past, but later disassembled it and sold it on.

Giant Inverted Boomerang

The second design is known as both the Giant Inverted Boomerang and the Super Invertigo. While maintaining a similar layout to the Boomerang, the track is again inverted, and the size of the ride is increased. The track is 270 feet longer, the two lift hills are almost 80 feet taller, and both hills are vertical. The track also crosses over, with the station underneath the vertical loop. The train has 8 cars, with the four seats of each car arranged in a chevron. Four Giant Inverted Boomerangs are in operation as of 2006.

A Bobsled roller coaster is the generic name given to any roller coaster that uses a track design that is essentially a “pipe” with the top half removed and has cars that are sent down this pipe in a freewheeling mode. The name derives from the great similarity to the track design used for the Bobsleigh winter sport.

Most modern bobsled roller coasters are made of steel, however the first bobsled coasters, known as Flying Turns were made of wood. As of 2007, there are no Flying Turns coasters in operation, however Knoebels in Pennsylvania is planning on opening the world’s first modern flying turns coaster, Flying Turns, in 2007