Six Flags Over Saudi Arabia?

In the spring of 2019 Six Flags published a press release about their new venture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Like it's other projects outside of North America Six Flags is licensing their name, brand as well as their consultation to another investment group. They have a deal in China, a recently dissolved project in Dubai, and now in Saudi Arabia. Just to be clear, because I have seen people rage about low cost attractions at their local parks, the money paying for these overseas parks is not from the Six Flags corporation. They are offering license and consultant services it is a local group who is investing in these proposed projects. Your membership will most likely not be accepted in any of these yet to be built parks, yes even for diamond elite. This new project in Saudi Arabia, just revealed detailed descriptions of the park and attractions and takes ambitious to a new level.  

The proposed property is only 79 acres, and from the sounds of the description will be jam packed with mind blowing attractions. Some claims are interactive mechanical horse rides controlled by the guest, sounds plausible. A multi launch roller coaster and a ground up hybrid, a bit more based in reality. A combination dark ride and mine train sounds interesting, along with a twist on the traditional log flume. The attractions listed seem to combine many leading edge technologies combined to offer something different. However they are also boasting plans to build the tallest drop tower in the world, a significant claim. The signature attraction is the most ambitious roller coaster the world has ever been introduced to, Falcon's Flight. 

Falcon's Flight is planned to be the tallest, fastest, and longest steel coaster in the world. I know if you are reading this you already know how off the wall these claims sound but let's review anyway. The tallest roller coaster in the world is Kingda Ka at 456 feet tall. The fastest roller coaster in the world is Formula Rossa at 149.1 MPH. The longest roller coaster is Steel Dragon 2000 at 8,133.2 feet long. Those three are all impressive records, however it is notable that these records are held by three different rides, and Falcon's Flight is aiming to eclipse all three. The notion of actually topping these three records is exciting, however there is a but… The animation that showed off the concept is totally nuts and looks to be made by someone who just drank a case of Mountain Dew, stayed awake until they couldn't think, and was completely unconstrained by reality. I mean this on all levels. The ride has a massive lift hill, but the layout also leads up a mountain and dives through a crazy disco tunnel. There appears to be LSMs along the circuit to provide the boost to defeat gravity as the layout appears to reach its max height and speed in the middle of the ride. The cost of construction would be unfathomable and it is designed in a vacuum where money is no object and a return on investment is second to bragging rights. The final bizarre twist to this coaster rendering is that it seems to be detached from reality?  The transitions between the sections seem to be spliced together at odd angles without smoothing out the track. It is tough to imagine anything about this rendering is based on reality. The cost cutting in creating the rendering that displays what would be the world's most expensive roller coaster is bizarre. I thought it was made by a kid using NL2 and not an official rendering from the park when I first saw it. Well they were thoughtful enough to add windshields to each car to protect the riders from sand or debris that would be encountered at at least 150 mph, nah nevermind it is still crazy.

Author

Jeff Goodman

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