Corkscrew | |
---|---|
Michigan's Adventure | |
Location | Michigan's Adventure |
Coordinates | 43°20′35″N86°16′46″W / 43.342979°N 86.279440°W Coordinates: 43°20′35″N86°16′46″W / 43.342979°N 86.279440°W |
Status | Operating |
Opening date | 1979 |
General statistics | |
Type | Steel |
Manufacturer | Arrow Dynamics |
Model | Corkscrew |
Lift/launch system | Chain Lift |
Height | 70 ft (21 m) |
Length | 1,250 ft (380 m) |
Speed | 45 mph (72 km/h) |
Inversions | 2 |
Duration | 70 seconds |
Max vertical angle | 42° |
Capacity | 750 riders per hour |
Height restriction | 48 in (122 cm) |
Corkscrew at RCDB |
Corkscrew is a steel roller coaster at Michigan's Adventure in Muskegon, Michigan. It was manufactured by Arrow Dynamics. Corkscrew was the park's first roller coaster during the Deer Park days.
Arrow Dynamics has built several Corkscrew coasters, including the one at Michigan's Adventure, and each has the two corkscrew loops that give this coaster type its name. [1] The ride is 70 feet high and 1,250 feet long. [2] [3] [4] It goes approximately 45 mph and lasts approximately 70 seconds. [2] [3] [4]
Prior to the park being bought by Cedar Fair, Corkscrew had an all-white track with white supports. The trains were red, white, and blue. After the park was purchased by Cedar Fair, the track was painted orange and the corkscrew portion was painted yellow. The supports were also painted to a teal/green color. The trains were as well given new colors, they now sport a red and yellow paint job. The station was given a face lift as well, changing the wood and white portions to a teal and tan color.[ citation needed ]
The Corkscrew was added to the park when it was known as Deer Park by then owner Roger Jourden in 1979. [5] [6] [7] It was the first inverting roller coaster in Michigan. [6]
This is one of the oldest original Arrow coasters still in existence. [8] It is the same model and layout as the original Corkscrew at Knott's Berry Farm. [4]
A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are often found in amusement parks and theme parks around the world. LaMarcus Adna Thompson obtained one of the first known patents for a roller coaster design in 1885, related to the Switchback Railway that opened a year earlier at Coney Island. The track in a coaster design does not necessarily have to be a complete circuit, as shuttle roller coasters demonstrate. Most roller coasters have multiple cars in which passengers sit and are restrained. Two or more cars hooked together are called a train. Some roller coasters, notably Wild Mouse roller coasters, run with single cars.
A steel roller coaster is a roller coaster that is defined by having a track made of steel. Steel coasters have earned immense popularity in the past 50 years throughout the world. Incorporating tubular steel track and polyurethane-coated wheels, the steel roller coasters can provide a taller, smoother, and faster ride with more inversions than a traditional wooden roller coaster.
A roller coaster inversion is a roller coaster element in which the track turns riders upside-down and then returns them to an upright position. Early forms of inversions were circular in nature and date back to 1848 on the Centrifugal railway in Paris. These vertical loops produced massive g-force that was often dangerous to riders. As a result, the element eventually became non-existent with the last rides to feature the looping inversions being dismantled during the Great Depression. In 1975, designers from Arrow Development created the corkscrew, reviving interest in the inversion during the modern age of steel roller coasters. Elements have since evolved from simple corkscrews and vertical loops to more complex inversions such as Immelmann loops and cobra rolls. The Smiler at Alton Towers holds the world record for the number of inversions on a roller coaster with 14.
Arrow Dynamics was an American manufacturing and engineering company that specialized in designing and building amusement park rides, especially roller coasters. Based in Clearfield, Utah, the company was the successor to Arrow Development (1946–1981) and Arrow Huss (1981–1986), which were responsible for several influential advancements in the amusement and theme park industries. Among the most significant was tubular steel track, which provided a smoother ride than the railroad style rails commonly used prior to the 1960s on wooden roller coasters. The Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland, built in 1959, was Arrow's first roller coaster project.
The Big One, formerly known as the Pepsi Max Big One, is a steel roller coaster located at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in Blackpool, Lancashire, United Kingdom. Designed by Ron Toomer and manufactured by Arrow Dynamics, the ride opened to the public on 28 May 1994 as the tallest and steepest roller coaster in the world. It held the record until July 1996, when Fujiyama opened at Fuji-Q Highland in Japan. The ride is currently the tallest roller coaster in the United Kingdom.
Ronald Valentine Toomer was an American roller coaster designer credited for designing 93 roller coasters around the world. He graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno in 1961 with a degree in mechanical engineering and was a part of the design team responsible for the Apollo spacecraft heat shield.
Michigan's Adventure is a 250-acre (1.0 km2) amusement park in Muskegon County, Michigan, about halfway between Muskegon and Whitehall. It is the largest amusement park in the state and has been owned and operated by Cedar Fair since 2001. As of 2019, Michigan's Adventure has 52 rides, more than any other park in the state.
Corkscrew is a steel roller coaster built by Arrow Development at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. Built in 1976, it was the first roller coaster in the world with 3 inversions. The coaster, which features Arrow's first vertical loop, was built during the same time period as The Great American Revolution at Magic Mountain. However, Revolution opened seven days prior and is therefore credited as the first modern-day coaster to feature a vertical loop.
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Corkscrew was a steel roller coaster located at Alton Towers theme park, near Alton in the English shire county of Staffordshire, United Kingdom. Corkscrew was manufactured for Alton Towers by Dutch company Vekoma, engineered by Werner Stengel of German Ing.-Büro Stengel GmbH. The coaster was located in the Ug Land area, formerly called Talbot Centre. It was the theme park's oldest ride and is considered the greatest factor in promoting the new theme park to the British public. It was one of the first double-inverting coasters in England, and it was well received publicly in the 1980s.
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Shockwave was a roller coaster manufactured by Arrow Dynamics at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois. Standing 170 feet (52 m) tall and reaching speeds of 65 miles per hour (105 km/h), it opened in 1988 as the world's tallest and fastest looping roller coaster with a record-breaking seven inversions: three vertical loops, a boomerang, and two regular corkscrews. Shockwave was closed in 2002 and has been dismantled.
Thunderhawk is an inverted roller coaster located at Michigan's Adventure amusement park in Muskegon, Michigan, United States. Designed and built by Vekoma, the roller coaster originally debuted in 1998 as Serial Thriller at Geauga Lake in Aurora, Ohio. It was renamed Thunderhawk in 2004 following Cedar Fair's acquisition of the park. After Geauga Lake's permanent closure in 2007, Thunderhawk was dismantled and moved to Michigan's Adventure, where it reopened in 2008.
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Infusion is an inverted steel roller coaster at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Lancashire, England. It is a 689m standard "Mark 3" model Vekoma Suspended Looping Coaster (SLC) and the first to be suspended entirely over water.
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A hybrid roller coaster is a category of roller coasters that is defined as having the track made out of steel, while the support structure is made from wood. Though less common, this can also be flipped around, with the track made of wood with a steel running plate, and a support structure that is made of steel. An example of this is The Voyage at Holiday World. The wooden frame-steel track design of roller coaster is mostly known to be utilized by Rocky Mountain Construction in their I-Box track design, and Arrow Dynamic's Mine Train style roller coasters.