The Flash: Vertical Velocity | |
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Six Flags Great Adventure | |
Location | Six Flags Great Adventure |
Park section | Movietown |
Coordinates | 40°08′13.47″N74°26′27.5″W / 40.1370750°N 74.440972°W |
Status | Under construction |
Opening date | 2024 |
General statistics | |
Type | Steel – Launched – Shuttle |
Manufacturer | Vekoma |
Designer | Benjamin Bloemendaal |
Model | Super Boomerang |
Lift/launch system | LSM |
Height | 172.2 ft (52.5 m) |
Length | 1,430.4 ft (436.0 m) |
Speed | 59 mph (95 km/h) |
Inversions | 2 |
Capacity | 800 riders per hour |
G-force | 4 |
Height restriction | 48 in (122 cm) |
Trains | Single train with 6 cars. Riders are arranged 2 across in 2 rows for a total of 24 riders per train. |
Website | Official website |
The Flash: Vertical Velocity at RCDB |
The Flash: Vertical Velocity is an upcoming steel roller coaster at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey. It will be a Vekoma Super Boomerang launch coaster themed to the DC Comics character the Flash and built to commemorate the park's 50th anniversary in 2024. [1]
Also a shuttle roller coaster, The Flash will feature a zero-g roll and a top speed of 59 miles per hour (95 km/h). The ride will be located in the Movietown section of Six Flags Great Adventure, near Justice League: Battle for Metropolis.
Dutch manufacturer Vekoma first unveiled their new shuttle launch coaster layout through the EAP Magazine in November 2021. [2] Dubbed the "Super Boomerang" as a tribute to their long-running coaster model, the coaster would use multiple banks of LSM launches to ascend spikes on either side of a tower. The design subsequently premiered in July 2023 as the Cloud Shuttle at Xuzhou Fantawild Wonderland in Tongshan, China. [3]
By November 2022, attendance had plummeted 33% across the Six Flags chain, with concerns that an ongoing corporate initiative to raise prices and cease investments had begun alienating park guests. [4] [5] Seeking to hastily reverse course, Six Flags sent representatives to the IAAPA Expo in Orlando, Florida that month, where a series of last-minute ride deals were signed off with multiple manufacturers. [6] Vekoma was among those approached by Six Flags, from whom they soon purchased a pre-manufactured junior coaster. Taking the form of Rookie Racer at Six Flags St. Louis, the project's delivery allowed Six Flags to conduct further business with Vekoma. [7]
In August 2023, Six Flags' Chief Financial Officer Gary Mick confirmed that a new roller coaster would be built at Six Flags Great Adventure in 2024, stating that, "We have a 50th Anniversary coming up at our park in New Jersey, and we had an opportunity to add a nice ride kind of late in the game. And that's a little bit rare because it takes generally a while to design and build a coaster. So we had a fortunate opportunity, and we decided to take it". [8] Concurrently, Great Adventure released a teaser presenting various numbers, which were determined to be statistics lining up with Vekoma's Super Boomerang model. [9] [10]
Six Flags Great Adventure officially announced The Flash: Vertical Velocity on August 30, 2023, set to become the park's 15th roller coaster and the first of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. [11] Billed as a part of the park's largest investment in 20 years, it would be joined by the overhauled Safari Off-Road Adventure, Wild Safari Park luxury glamping, and various other park refurbishments. [12] Jackson Township Planning Commissioners officially approved the project on December 18, 2023. [13] Animated B-roll of the coaster was later released in March 2024. [14]
Deforestation and other land clearing work began behind Cyborg Cyber Spin in January 2024, with local contractors Force Concrete constructing its foundations the next month. [15] [16] Track and supports first began arriving from Vekoma in February, and assembly of the ride began at the end of April. [17] [18]
Vekoma Rides Manufacturing is a Dutch amusement ride manufacturer. Vekoma is a syllabic abbreviation of Veld Koning Machinefabriek which was established in 1926 by Hendrik op het Veld.
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.
An inverted roller coaster is a type of steel roller coaster in which the train runs under the track with the seats directly attached to the wheel carriage. Riders are seated in open cars, letting their feet swing freely. The inverted coaster was pioneered by Swiss roller coaster manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard in the early 1990s with the development of Batman: The Ride, which opened at Six Flags Great America on May 9, 1992.
Six Flags Fiesta Texas, formerly known simply as Fiesta Texas, is a theme park located in Northwest San Antonio. It opened on March 14, 1992, in the La Cantera master-planned development and district as the first business in that development. Spanning 200 acres (81 ha), the park was originally built to become a destination musical show park with its focus on the musical culture of the state of Texas. The park was purchased by Time Warner in 1995, and branded as a Six Flags park for the 1996 season.
Six Flags Great America is a 304-acre (123 ha) amusement park located in Gurnee, Illinois, within the northern Chicago metropolitan area. The amusement park originally opened as Marriott's Great America on May 29, 1976, as one of two theme parks built by the Marriott Corporation. Six Flags acquired the amusement park in 1984 after the theme park division was an earnings disappointment for Marriott. The sale gave Six Flags rights to the Looney Tunes intellectual properties.
A shuttle roller coaster is any roller coaster that ultimately does not make a complete circuit, but rather reverses at some point throughout its course and traverses the same track backwards. These are sometimes referred to as boomerang roller coasters, due to the ubiquity of Vekoma's Boomerang coaster model.
The launched roller coaster is a modern form of roller coaster. A launched coaster initiates a ride with high amounts of acceleration via one or a series of linear induction motors (LIM), linear synchronous motors (LSM), catapults, tires, chains, or other mechanisms employing hydraulic or pneumatic power, along a launch track. This mode of acceleration powers many of the fastest roller coasters in the world.
Boomerang is a model of roller coaster manufactured and designed by Vekoma, a Dutch manufacturer. The roller coaster model name is from the hunting implement based on the traditions of the Indigenous Australians. As of January 2023 there are 55 Boomerangs operating.
A Giant Inverted Boomerang is a type of steel shuttle roller coaster manufactured by the Dutch firm Vekoma. The ride is a larger, inverted version of Vekoma's popular Boomerang sit down roller coasters. As of April 2024, four installations of the model are operating, with another one under construction.
Boomerang: Coast to Coaster is a steel roller coaster of shuttle design currently in use at four different Six Flags & EPR theme parks. The ride was designed and manufactured by Vekoma, and is considered as one of its boomerang models. Each coaster has one train with a capacity of 28, two across in each row. Unlike Vekoma's suspended trains, "Boomerang: Coast to Coaster" operates a sit-down design. When the coaster starts, the train is pulled backwards up the lift hill, then dropped through the loading gate through a cobra roll and then one loop. At the end of this cycle the train is pulled up the lift hill at the end of the track, then dropped once again allowing the train to go back through the loops backwards, hence the name "Boomerang: Coast to Coaster."
The Nighthawk is a steel flying roller coaster from Vekoma located at Carowinds amusement park. The roller coaster is located in the Thunder Road section of the park. The roller coaster originally opened as Stealth at California's Great America on April 1, 2000. In 2003, Paramount Parks decided to relocate the roller coaster to Carowinds. It reopened as Borg Assimilator – the first coaster in the world to be themed to Star Trek – on March 20, 2004. After Cedar Fair purchased Carowinds in 2006, Paramount themes were soon removed from the park, and the ride was renamed Nighthawk. It is one of only two Flying Dutchman models still in existence from Vekoma.
The Flash: Vertical Velocity is an inverted steel roller coaster located at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois. The roller coaster is themed to the DC Comics character, The Flash. Originally named Vertical Velocity, the ride received a re-theme in 2022.
Jolly Rancher Remix is a steel shuttle roller coaster located at Hersheypark in Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States. A Boomerang model manufactured by Vekoma and designed by Peter Clerx, the roller coaster originally opened as the Sidewinder on May 11, 1991. The roller coaster debuted in the Pioneer Frontier section of the park and cost $4.2 million. The Sidewinder was the first roller coaster installed in the park in 14 years since the SooperDooperLooper in 1977 and the fourth roller coaster in operation to be built. The roller coaster has a maximum height of 116.5 ft (35.5 m), with a maximum speed of 47 mph (76 km/h), and a track length of 935 ft (285 m).
Firehawk was a flying roller coaster located at Kings Island in Mason, Ohio. Manufactured by Vekoma, it originally opened as X-Flight at Six Flags Worlds of Adventure on May 26, 2001, billed as the Midwest's first and only flying roller coaster. Cedar Fair purchased Worlds of Adventure in 2004 and began efforts to downsize the park. X-Flight was relocated to Kings Island following the 2006 season, where it reopened as Firehawk on May 26, 2007.
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