Specific Type: Floorless Coaster
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Over the years, Agawam, Massachusetts' park now known as Six Flags New England has grown to become New England's hot spot for thrill seekers, and April of 2002 brought yet another coaster to add to the park's bragging rights. Batman: the Dark Knight is the New England Six Flags park's third DC-Comics-themed coaster, following Superman: Ride of Steeland the family coaster Catwoman's Whip, in addition to being the park's first coaster installment from Swiss designers Bolliger and Mabillard and the New England region's first floorless scream machine - a coaster craze that began in 1999 with Six Flags Great Adventures'Medusa. And the Dark Knight is also one of the world's twistiest floorless coasters, with five inverting maneuvers and five additional banked curves, all packed into a course consisting of over 2,600 feet of blue and purple B&M box track.
To accommodate the new Dark Knight coaster to be installed in the 2008 season, Batman saw a name-change to the traditional Batman: the Ride dubbing. The proposed ride, however, was never built, so the name of the floorless coaster was reverted back to the original Batman the Dark Knight. Riders follow the queuing line into the Batman-themed station before boarding one of the floor-free trains and securing yellow over-the-shoulder restraints, and then begin the ride by climbing to Batman's moderate height of 117 feet. Out to the left: the twisting tracks of Mind Eraser, the park's Vekoma inverted thriller. Immediately ahead: the over-banked turnaround of the praised Bizarro hypercoaster. But the pretty scenery doesn't last forever. After a traditional B&M dip, the crossbars of the track start flying by underneath riders' feet with a steeply-angled swoop to the bottom. Predictably enough, a Vertical Loop next stands in the way of Batman to send the train up and around with sky below, ground above. The Dark Knight continues with an inversion B&M have become famous for - the Dive Loop - twisting up and diving down a half-loop and making for a 180-degree course reversal. The blue rails then head back through the center of the Vertical Loop in a banked 200-degree Fan Curve to the left. The train heads into weightless territory with a Zero-g Roll rotating 360-degrees beneath the Dive Loop. Diving down over a park pathway, the train maneuvers its way into a banked turn and abruptly completes the first of two Interlocking Corkscrews. After the first flip, the train curves around a tight banked curve facing the train to the last flip, interlocking, hence the name, with the former. Finally, a banked curve raises passengers onto the level of the final brake run. Although not an official record-breaker of any sorts, Batman: the Dark Knight proves one of the most unique coasters of its type. |
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