Corkscrew Roller Coaster
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.
