Specific Type: Flying Coaster
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In early 1992, Six Flags Great America got ready to pull the wraps from Batman: the Ride, the first of a completely new breed of rollercoasters from Swiss engineers Bolliger and Mabillard known as 'inverted'. Replacing the dated steel shuttle-looping Tidal Wave, Batman would dangle riders beneath the track, legs free, and then send them looping through the air to try to provide the sensation of flight like no other ride. More than ten years later, at the same Six Flags park in Gurnee, Illinois, another aged steel looping coaster, ShockWave this time, is on the way out to make way for the latest advance in steel coaster design from Bolliger and Mabillard. Very appropriately named Superman: Ultimate Flight, this DC Comics superhero will take the Midwestern US soaring through the skies like never before as trainloads of 32 passengers lie prone to the red and yellow overhead track. During the 2-minute-long experience, riders will get to fly around two Carousel Curves, careen through two inversions - the Pretzel Loop and Heartline Roll - and swoop around two highly-banked Horseshoe Curves, with speeds reaching a maximum of 55 miles per hour after the first dive. Superman: Ultimate Flight will also give Six Flags Great America two special new distinctions: The park with the most Bolliger and Mabillard coasters (along with Six Flags Great Adventure), 4, along with Iron Wolf, Batman: the Ride, and Raging Bull; and the largest collection of inverted coasters in the world, also four, preceeding Batman: the Ride, V2: Vertical Velocity, and Deja Vu; both records being fully deserved for the fact that Great America was home of both the first Bolliger and Mabillard ride, Iron Wolf, as well, of course, as the first inverted coaster.
To get into the Superman position from below the track, B&M have specially designed rider-cradles which are boarded in a sitting position, then mechanically raised to become prone to the red and yellow track above. After takeoff from one of two 'split' loading stations (similar to those used on X-Flight and Batwing), the flight starts out with a 90-degree curve and then the trip up to a 15-story altitude. At last, Superman impersonators get their wings. The Ultimate Flight gets to the good stuff with the first dive, heading down 100 feet and curving 135 degrees to buzz over the queuing line below. Soaring up, the course continues with the one-of-a-kind inversion mayhem of the Pretzel Loop, the train climbing to a height of 76 feet before diving downwards in the reverse-type loop. Climbing back to 7-story altitudes and exiting the Pretzel, the track swerves up and around in a left-hand fan-like curve diving right back through the center of the inversion. Diving underneath the final brake run section, riders fly through a highly-banked 180-degree curve before diving back to the ground. Meandering through another banked U-turn, the ride makes its way back under the final track section to enter a short tunnel. Exiting the tunnel, the track banks to a near 90-degree angle and sends passengers around an upwards Carousel Curve spiraling around straight into a final 360-degree Heartline Roll and then onto the brake run. If you've ever wanted to fly like Superman, make your way to Six Flags Great America next spring and experience the flight of your life on Superman: Ultimate Flight! |
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