Wing Coaster

Wing Coaster
GateKeeper's keyhole element at Cedar Point
Data
Manufacturer	Bolliger & Mabillard
Year of first delivery	2011
Systems in operation	13
Passengers per row of seats	4th
Restraint system	Lap bar with "west"

A wing coaster ( English for "wing roller coaster ") is a roller coaster type from the manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard , in which the passengers sit in pairs to the left and right of the rail, so that nothing is above or below them. With Raptor in Gardaland , Italy , the first facility of this type was opened in 2011. There are currently nine Wing Coaster in operation worldwide .

history

According to Walter Bolliger, co-founder of Bolliger & Mabillard, started the development of wing coaster between 2007 and 2008. In 2010, the company announced the prototype for Merlin Entertainments Group belonging Gardaland on. The facility, named Raptor , opened on April 1, 2011. Due to the positive experience, the group started operating the world's second Wing Coaster on March 15, 2012, The Swarm .

The first wing coaster in North America was Wild Eagle , which opened in Dollywood on March 24, 2012 . On August 13th, Cedar Point announced a wing coaster that would set new records for this type of roller coaster in terms of length, speed and altitude. The track opened on March 11, 2013 under the name GateKeeper . With Parrot Coaster in Chime-Long Ocean Kingdom , the first Wing Coaster on Asian soil went into operation in January 2014 . The Merlin Entertainments Group opened the first roller coaster of this type in Germany on March 29, 2014 with Flight of the Demons in the Heide Park Resort . On April 25, 2015, the Wing Coaster Thunderbird was opened in the US American Holiday World , which is the manufacturer's first roller coaster with LSM launch.

particularities

The seats from X-Flight . The lap bars with integrated "vests" are recognizable

"Nothing above, nothing below. An unprecedented feeling of freedom. "

“Nothing above, nothing below. An unprecedented feeling of freedom. "

- Bolliger & Mabillard

The seating position on a wing coaster differs from most roller coasters in that the passengers do not sit above or below the rail, but to the side of it. Due to this seating position, there are no parts of the rail construction either above or below the passengers, so that the passengers should have the feeling of "free flying". The cantilever girders to which the seats are attached are covered by a panel that matches the theme of the respective runway. The restraint system also differs from many other roller coasters: Instead of a shoulder bar known from the manufacturer's inverted coasters , lap bars with an integrated "vest" are used, similar to the restraint system of a flying coaster , which extends over the upper body of the passengers. There are also special features when setting up the station: Since the seats are on both sides next to the rail, the queue must be divided into two parts and led to the left and right of the rail.

A so-called “keyhole element” is a common element in wing coasters . This is a combination of head and foot chopper , which is realized by an object located around the rail, through which the train seems to just barely fit. The aim is to give passengers the feeling of an approaching collision.

Locations

Wing Coaster

Raptor

The Swarm

Wild eagle

X-Flight

GateKeeper

Flight of the demons

Surname	park	country	opening	speed
Raptor	Gardaland	Italy	April 1, 2011	90 km / h
The Swarm	Thorpe Park	United Kingdom	March 15, 2012	92 km / h
Wild eagle	Dollywood	United States	March 24, 2012	98 km / h
X-Flight	Six Flags Great America	United States	May 16, 2012	89 km / h
GateKeeper	Cedar Point	United States	May 11th, 2013	107 km / h
Parrot Coaster	Chimelong Ocean Kingdom	People's Republic of China	January 25, 2014	108 km / h
Flight of the demons	Heath Park Resort	Germany	March 29, 2014	100 km / h
Thunderbird	Holiday World	United States	April 25, 2015	97 km / h
Flying Wing Coaster	Happy Valley, Yubei	People's Republic of China	July 8, 2017
Wing Coaster	Colorful Yunnan Paradise	People's Republic of China	5th July 2018
Fēnix	Toverland	Netherlands	7 Jul 2018	95 km / h
Heaven's Wing	HB World	People's Republic of China	2018
Falcon	Wuxi Sunac Land	People's Republic of China	June 29, 2019	118 km / h

Similar rides

Raptor's train on the lift hill . The keyhole element can be seen at the bottom right.

Even before the development of the Wing Coaster by Bolliger & Mabillard had begun, Intamin presented a variant of their Launched Coaster called Wing Rider Coaster with modified trains that were very similar to those of 4th Dimension Coasters and the later Wing Coasters . The only roller coaster of this type to date is Furius Baco in PortAventura . The six rows of four-person trains are accelerated from standstill to 135 km / h in 3.5 seconds.

In addition to the Wing Rider Coaster , Intamin also has a roller coaster called Wing Coaster in its portfolio, which made its debut in 2012 with Skyrush in Hersheypark . In contrast to the ride of the same name by Bolliger & Mabillard, however, the passengers are above the rails, as with many other roller coasters. The name stems from the fact that under the two inner seats in each row there is a connection to the vehicle base of the train, while the two outer seats are connected to the rest of the train by means of a "wing".

Wing Coaster also have similarities to the 4th Dimension Coaster developed in the 1990s . In contrast to this, however, the seats in a Wing Coaster do not rotate - they are firmly attached to the vehicle. Examples of 4th dimension coaster are X² in Six Flags Magic Mountain and Eejanaika in Fuji-Q Highland, Japan .

Web links

Commons : Wing Coaster  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• the Wing Coaster on the Bolliger & Mabillard website
• all Wing Coaster in the Roller Coaster Database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Theme Park Review: IAAPA 2011 Trade Show Part 4 Theme Park Review Fishpipe Water Ride B&M Zamperla. Video on YouTube, November 16, 2011, accessed January 5, 2014 . 
2. ^ X-Raptor, the prototype 4th Dimension B&M. (No longer available online.) July 23, 2010, archived from the original on November 6, 2013 ; Retrieved January 5, 2014 (French). 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Duane Marden: Raptor. rcdb.com, accessed January 5, 2014 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Duane Marden: Swarm. rcdb.com, accessed January 5, 2014 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Duane Marden: Wild Eagle. rcdb.com, accessed January 5, 2014 . 
6. ↑ Cedar Point Announces Plans for New World Record Breaking Roller Coaster! (No longer available online.) Cedar Point on Aug 13, 2012, archived from the original on Oct 6, 2014 ; accessed on January 5, 2014 . 
7. ↑ ^{a b} Duane Marden: Parrot Coaster. rcdb.com, accessed January 5, 2014 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b} Duane Marden: Flight of the Demons. rcdb.com, accessed February 5, 2014 . 
9. ↑ ^{a b} Duane Marden: Thunderbird. rcdb.com, accessed May 10, 2015 . 
10. ^ Wing Coaster . Retrieved January 6, 2014
11. ↑ Duane Marden: List of Wing Coaster . rcdb.com, accessed January 5, 2014 . 
12. ↑ Lisa Black: Six Flags opens X Flight wing coaster. Chicago Tribune, March 10, 2012, accessed January 5, 2014 . 
13. ↑ Wild Eagle Media Day !! Theme Park Review, March 23, 2012, accessed January 5, 2014 . 
14. ↑ Duane Marden: X-Flight. rcdb.com, accessed January 5, 2014 . 
15. ↑ Duane Marden: GateKeeper. rcdb.com, accessed January 5, 2014 . 
16. ↑ Fēnix. Retrieved July 12, 2018 . 
17. ↑ ^{a b} Duane Marden: Furius Baco. rcdb.com, accessed January 5, 2014 . 
18. ^ Wing Rider Coaster. (No longer available online.) Intamin AG, archived from the original on September 20, 2013 ; accessed on January 5, 2014 . 
19. ↑ Duane Marden: Skyrush. rcdb.com, accessed January 6, 2014 . 
20. ↑ Duane Marden: X2. rcdb.com, accessed January 5, 2014 . 
21. ↑ Duane Marden: Eejanaika. rcdb.com, accessed January 5, 2014 .