![]() ![]() Location: Nagashima Spa Land (Mei, Japan) The cable latches onto the train while it's in the station and pulls it up the lift hill in a brisk 30 seconds (that's 10 feet per second), providing riders a view of Canada across the lake on a clear day before pulling them right over the top without a moment to sweat it out. Typical for manufacturer Intamin, there's also something innovative (and more to the point, temperamental) about Millennium Force: in lieu of a traditional chain lift with its clicking anti-rollbacks providing a leisurely climb, the ride uses an elevator cable-based lift. It's sleek and stunning, arcing over airtime hills, weaving through curving tunnels, and blasting across "Millennium Island." By time Millennium Force races past queueing guests, travels through a final banked turn, and aligns with the brakes, it feels like it hasn't lost even a hint of its 93 mile per hour top speed. (Intamin has only built one other gigacoaster, and it's a whole different breed.) The ride is forceful, yet graceful. ![]() Even twenty years later, it's also one-of-a-kind. Easily one of the most legendary and iconic roller coasters on Earth, Millennium Force was indeed a harbinger of the 21st century, with its blazing blue track and its parabolic hills set against Lake Erie.įor coaster enthusiasts, Millennium Force is a "bucket list" experience a landmark coaster worth traveling for. Millennium Force (2000)įamously the first park to break the 100-foot (Gemini), 200-foot (Magnum XL-200), and eventually, 400-foot (Top Thrill Dragster) full circuit height barrier, there could be no park but Ohio's Cedar Point to open the world's first gigacoaster. Because it isn't a "full circuit" roller coaster, Superman isn't considered a "gigacoaster." At least according to that caveat, the first true giga coaster debuted three years later. but in the world of coaster records, "shuttle coasters" (coasters that reverse somewhere along their course and return to the start point) tend to get an asterisk. Technically Superman: The Escape was the first coaster with a drop of over 300 feet. (In 2011, the cars' directions were reversed, leading to the backwards Superman: Escape from Krypton you'll see in the official POV below.) Superman's vehicles made it about 328 feet up the vertical tower, staring straight up at an anti-gravity Superman for over 6 seconds of sustained weightlessness, before plummeting back down. Superman's two parallel tracks each housed one single four-row, 15-seat ride vehicle with a single goal: to rapidly accelerate from 0 to 100 miles per hour in about 7 seconds, tearing down an 800 foot straightaway before rapidly angling straight upward. Coming just a year after the launch (pun intended) of electromagnetic linear induction motor (LIM) technology first launched coasters without troublesome, friction-filled catapult or flywheel systems, Superman used linear synchronous motors (LSM) to do the same. When fabled coaster park Six Flags Magic Mountain opened Superman: The Escape in 1997, the ride was unlike anything seen before. Location: Six Flags Magic Mountain (Valencia, California) Honorary Mention: Superman – Escape from Kryption (1997) Join us as we explore the evolution of the "giga" through its six iterations, and look to where a 300 foot thrill machine may arise next. Today, just six rides reside in the "giga" level – between 300 and 399 foot drops – each with its own story, elements, and personality. Epic, staggering, and spectacular, the "gigacoaster" is a growing icon of thrillseeking. Then came the 200-foot barrier with a generation of "hypercoasters."īut when it comes to the world's most extraordinary rides, it's hard to beat the very small family of 300-foot rides you'll find across three countries. A generation of so-called "mega-coasters" dotted the amusement park landscape throughout the '70s and '80s. It all started when the unthinkable happened: the first roller coaster to break the 100-foot height barrior. When it comes to the creativity of roller coaster manufacturers, it can feel like the sky's the limit. Racing coasters suspended inverted flying stand-up dive wing. Year after year, decade after decade, the unthinkable continuously becomes real. But in the last 50 years especially, the Second Golden Age of the Roller Coaster has seen steel stretch into the sky. Roller coasters have been around for a very, very long time. ![]()
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