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© Paramount Pictures
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Since the movie
Top Gun was released by Paramount Pictures in 1986, one line from the film has found itself everywhere in pop culture. "I feel the need... the need for speed," were the immortal words proclaimed by Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards. In 1999, Cedar Fair Parks capitalized on the
Top Gun franchise with a new attraction that would put ordinary civilians in the place of elite fighter pilots to satisfy their need for speed. Not only the need for speed though, but also the need for inversions, the need for smoothness, the need for intensity, and the need for originality. It was that wide range of qualities that sent Carowinds's sleek "jet" coaster to the top right after taking its inaugural flight on March 20, 1999.
When the North Carolina-South Carolina park began planning their blockbuster 1999-season attraction, the first problem was finding a suitable plot of land for a major new coaster. The only major open space within the 105-acre park was a lagoon at the center of the property that, at that time, was home to the Carolina Sternwheeler boat ride. However, the park wisely decided to spare the Sternwheeler for the time being and save it for a future coaster. Along the North end of the property, between the secondary North Gate and Thunder Road racing coaster was an
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unusually shaped area bordering the park's back parking lot. Before long, Swiss geniuses Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabillard were working with their friend Werner Stengel and his company, Ingenieur Buro Stengel GmbH to conceive a brilliant acrobatic layout for the multi-million dollar thrill ride. Their end result was an intense, compact layout packing a loop, Immelman, boomerang, flat spin, and some tight non-inverting curvature into a cruise of just under 3,000 track feet.
At end of the planning, the park brainstormed a winning theme for the ride and its surroundings. Ironically, the air fighter theme that contributed to the success of similar rides at three out of four of the other Cedar Fair Parks wasn't Carowinds's first choice. Their sights were set 1998's remake of the movie Godzilla, but fortunately, the movie bombed well ahead of what would have been the Godzilla coaster's debut. That gave Carowinds ample time to order up a load of appropriate theming so that riders wouldn't find themselves piloting past a danger zone of assailing monsters. Monstrous ride colors were exchanged for white, gray, and blue, and several months after the park wrapped up its 1998 season, those very colors began dotting the back parking lot. After the completed aerial action attraction took its first flight and opened to the public, thrill seekers the country over began signing up for flight school and packing their bags for Charlotte, North Carolina.
Cedar Fair Parks had ushered in After Burn coasters at three other properties from 1993 on, but none of the rides from the original trio managed to come close to the Carowinds's ride in popularity. The first of those After Burn took visitors to Kings Island in Ohio weaving through the trees in a non-looping course that served as a second attempt at pulling off the suspended, swinging concept. The same year, Paramount's West Coast park Great
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America introduced the most similar precursor to the
Jet Coaster with their Bolliger and Mabillard ride, a quick jaunt through the sky through three inversions and 2,260 track feet. Finally, Canada's Wonderland took advantage of the theming rights for a compact
Suspended Looping Coaster model from the Dutch company Vekoma, one of dozens exactly like it around the world. The first three
Top Guns may have proven popular rides their first few years, but it would be Carowinds's attempt at matching the aerial maneuvers of military pilots that would land the park towards the top of "to visit" lists for the 1999 season.
In 2008, the new owner of all former Paramount-branded theme parks, Cedar Fair, abandon the movie-branded name and theme. Carowinds, unlike the other parks sporting After Burn coasters, chose similar names for the ride.
Donning their flight gear, fighter pilot wannabes enter the line and soon ascend to board one of two sleek trains of thirty-two. The metal floor drops out from below and Top-Guns-in-training are sent on their way. Instead of a traditional launch off the aircraft carrier, this After Burn follows roller coaster tradition more closely with its ascent into the sky. En route to the sky, riders can peek around the padding of their over-the-shoulder restraints to observe the silver track passing by out to the right, the first two inversions sending the layout feeding underneath the lift. Anticipation builds as the train nears its 113-foot top altitudes, blue sky just ahead. After passing by the upper half of the loop, the train crests the lift and takes a mild dip off the chain. Suddenly, the track yanks riders to the right and they find themselves nose-diving to the ground while spiraling 180 degrees to the right. But like any good action movie, the heroes' lives are saved at the last minute with a quick pull out just inches above the ground. Grass whizzes by underfoot at sixty-two mile-per-hour speeds. Whew!
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But just when riders thought that their perils were over, their aircraft goes into its 360-degree vertical maneuver as if a loop is just child's play. "Hey, maybe doing crazy death-defying stunts isn't so bad after all!" riders think to themselves. Indeed, the designers just couldn't seem to get enough of those crazy maneuvers. And the next one on the menu is one invented by a World War I fighter pilot, appropriately enough: the Immelman. Mr. Immelman conceived the element to escape from enemy planes in combat, but
After Burn riders find it the perfect escape from another enemy: normality. The inversion throws riders for a half-loop right into a forty-five-degree twist sending them right back down again. This layout soon reveals that the acrobatics are just beginning. Third on the inversion list is a negative-g-inducing favorite climbing, twisting, and diving like any self-respecting zero-g roll. As the course goes on, the elements only intensify. A large, spread out boomerang inversion corkscrews upside down and dives 180 degrees into a fog-enshrouded trench, then pulls back up with the same inversion in reverse.
Soaring back towards the lift hill, the track leaps over a camelback hop serving up a second major dose of that thing fighter pilots are so familiar with: negative g's. On the other side of the lift, the track rushes to meet back up with the ground once more, pulling out just in time to enter the coaster's finale sequence in one piece. With an incredible force of 4.8 g's that even the most seasoned pilots would appreciate, the train plows into a final inversion: the flat spin. Corkscrewing up and over, the silver track spirals swiftly like a miscalculated move through the sky. Those aboard who survived the blackout-strength forces can savor one final treat.
If you feel that need, you know where to fulfill it!
Written by Devin Olson
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Ride Reviews / Opinions
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Chirs
TOP GUN is a fun, fast & wonderful coaster. It has the theme of the movie and really makes you feel "Top Gun"ish. It takes you through 6 stomach-churning inversions that'll have you screaming for more. This is one of the top coasters I have ever been on. So if you ever visit Carowinds, make sure you don't miss this one!
Carowindsman
This is one of the most underrated B&Ms out there. Its one of the best I believe in all the inverted coasters it would probably be in my top three of all inverts I have been on.
Amber
I think that Top Gun is a awesome, awesome ride. When I first saw it I would not get on it. My little sister Anna that was 7 years old wanted to ride it but she was about a inch to short. The next time that I went it was my step mom and me. I finally got on it and had a BLAST! I wonted to ride it again so we rode it three times in a row. That is one of the best ride and time that was really fun in life. I think that you should bulid another one simlar to Top Gun.
steel-Rock
I am glad that this ride is in this park. It is beyond doubt the best ride there. I have been on better inverts, but this one has unusual elements. The queue line was so short ! It has great themes, but I'm sorry that it didn't get to keep it's name.
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