Type of steel roller coaster
Suspended roller coaster
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4b/Iron_Dragon_Cedar_Point.JPG/250px-Iron_Dragon_Cedar_Point.JPG) |
Status
| In Production
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First manufactured
| 1902
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No.
of installations
| About 37
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Manufacturers
| Arrow Development
, Aerial Tramway Construction Co., Big Country Motioneering, Caripro, R&C Entertainment, Setpoint, and
Vekoma
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A
suspended roller coaster
(not to be confused with an
inverted roller coaster
) is a
steel roller coaster
model in which passengers are seated in open-top, boat-like gondolas that hang under the track. Traveling beneath the
rolling stock
, each gondola is affixed to a pivoting
fulcrum
or hinge assembly, allowing for the entire car to swing outwards and side-to-side as the train makes sharp turns along the course. Riders are typically secured with over-the-shoulder restraints. Due to the nature of the ride and the swinging effect, suspended roller coasters do not feature inversions, and are generally considered “family” rides; certain suspended roller coasters may be considered more or less intense than others, however.
History
[
edit
]
One of the earliest suspended roller coasters was known as
Bisby's Spiral Airship
, built in
Long Beach
,
California
in the early 1900s.
[1]
Riders on
Bisby's Spiral Airship
rode in square gondolas suspended from the track above, which were then carried via
lift hill
to the top of a tower. The gondolas then rolled down the track, which spiraled down the tower back to the loading platform. The attraction operated at least until the mid 1910s.
[1]
In 1975, German aircraft manufacturer
Messerschmitt
debuted
Alpenflug
at the annual
Oktoberfest
fair in
Munich
,
Germany
.
[2]
Featuring multi-car trains and a 2700-foot twisting, spiraling layout,
Alpenflug
was a hit during the 16-day fair.
[2]
However, the design was scrapped after analysis revealed significant stress in the track, whose curves were not banked, and in the wheel assemblies, as the train's brake fins were located at the bottom of the train's gondolas instead of near the track itself.
[2]
The first permanent modern suspended roller coaster was
The Bat
at
Kings Island
. Built by
Arrow Development
,
The Bat
opened April 21, 1981, but it was soon plagued with problems. The problems included: excessive stress on the support springs due to the unbanked curved track sections and stress on the wheels because the brakes were mounted at bottom of the swinging cars. Kings Island's US$3.8 million ride closed in 1983 and was later scheduled for demolition.
The Bat's
former site was occupied by the Arrow designed looping coaster
Vortex
until its demolition in 2019. The suspended coaster would return to Kings Island in 1993 with the addition of
Top Gun
, which. after a period of being called
Flight Deck
, was renamed
The Bat
in 2014, a reference to the original 1981 coaster.
The Vampire
at
Chessington World of Adventures
Arrow-Huss refined its suspended roller coaster designs, culminating in the debut of
The Big Bad Wolf
at
Busch Gardens Williamsburg
and
XLR-8
at
Six Flags Astroworld
in 1984. After 1984, as Arrow Dynamics, they manufactured ten suspended roller coasters, including
Iron Dragon
at
Cedar Point
,
Ninja
at
Six Flags Magic Mountain
,
Vampire
at
Chessington World of Adventures
, and
Vortex
at
Canada's Wonderland
.
Other manufacturers have also constructed their variations on the suspended roller coaster. Before contacting Arrow-Huss for The Big Bad Wolf, Busch Gardens contacted
Anton Schwarzkopf
to design a suspended coaster, dubbed the "Flugbahn". However, Schwarzkopf went bankrupt, completing only a model and the footers of the actual coaster.
[3]
Dutch designer
Vekoma
manufactured a suspended model dubbed "Swinging Turns," of which three copies were constructed. Vekoma offers both Arrow-style traditional car designs as well as floorless cars where the riders' feet dangle, similar to Vekoma's
inverted coasters
but the cars are able to swing. In 2001,
Vampire
at
Chessington World of Adventures
was modified to use Vekoma's floorless trains.
Caripro
, another designer based in The Netherlands, manufactured twelve suspended roller coasters and American designer
Setpoint
manufactured four.
Installations
[
edit
]
A former
Arrow Huss
suspended roller coaster,
Big Bad Wolf
at
Busch Gardens Williamsburg
A Setpoint suspended roller coaster,
Roller Soaker
at
Hershey Park
Trains swinging on an
Arrow Dynamics
manufactured suspended roller coaster
The Bat
at
Kings Island
* Operates with
Vekoma
trains
[4]
** Never operated
[4]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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Construction material
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Train configuration
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Track layout
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Current roller coaster models
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Discontinued roller coaster models
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Other current rides
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Other discontinued rides
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Notable rides
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