FD58 Sample Article
FD58 Sample Article
Published in FD58
The most original coaster concept to come along since Walter and Claude inverted riders below the track, X arrives as the first dual direction, inverted, floorless, flying, flipping, vertical dropping, rotating roller coaster. Is it a hypercoaster? Definitely. Is it a backwards coaster? Partially. Is it a looping coaster? Sort of. Never before has a coaster seemed to cover so many almost indescribable categories. The decades previous steelies have been evolutionary. X is revolutionary.
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Photo: Eric Sakowski |
Dominating the entrance to Six Flags Magic Mountain (Valencia, California), X is the first of 15 coasters to greet visitors. Towering in front of the older Viper multi-looper as the new king of the hill, the proximity between the two Arrow Dynamics designed coasters, built a decade apart, is a powerful symbol of just how far steel coasters have come in such a short period of time. This contrast also represents the surprising comeback of a company that many had written off as a victim of its own early success, unable or unwilling to change, while the competition moved ahead with more daring and innovative rides.
But memories are short and it’s easy to forget that it was Arrow who attempted to introduce a fibreglass updating of the classic Flying Turns coaster and succeeded in creating the first modern day suspended coaster. The troubled Paramount’s Kings Island Bat (Cincinnati, Ohio) also showed that sometimes you pay a price for being the first kid on the block. When X’s opening was delayed for nearly six months, rumours began to circulate that maybe Arrow and Six Flags had bitten off more than they could chew, and that the ambitious new prototype was never going to work. Behind the scenes, Arrow continued to go through some rough times, spending more money on X than was originally budgeted while also having to deal with a work slowdown that has left much of the industry in a recession. When the coaster finally opened to season pass holders in late December, the anxiety to ride it had reached fever pitch.
Upon entering the cavernous X station, everyone first notices the giant scale, 20ft (6.1m) wide purple and grey trains with their maroon and yellow seats. They are long and beefed up with seven ‘cars’ - each supported by two sets of over-sized dual 16 inch (0.41m) running wheels, one on the top and one on the bottom. With such a wide girth, the main track gauge was kept to a minimal 42 inches - midway between the 48inches of Arrow’s normal looping coasters and the 36 inches of a mine ride. On the top of each car is a rectangular I-beam platform with two rack and pinion-like individual gear shaft assemblies that each contain two types of gears. The first is a circular gear that is wrapped around the inside end of the rotating seat shaft. Meshed with it is a second, straight gear, that is positioned vertically. On the outside of the main track is a separate set of control rails with an even wider track gauge of 76 inches (1.93m). A smaller wheel bogey rides on either control rail and is connected to a straight gear positioned above it. As the control rail moves up and down in relation to the main running rail, the straight gear also moves up and down, rotating the seat shaft and flipping riders forward or backward. The vertical sections of the funky looking fibreglass ‘X’ on the top of each car are actually housings for the straight gear shafts that were created by some talented designers at Arrow. With all of this necessary hardware, the trains tip the scale at over 27 tons - two and a half times the weight of an ordinary Arrow train.
As we have all learnt from Premier, no amount of track bending ingenuity can save a coaster from a badly designed seat. With X, the guys at Arrow did their homework, creating an exceptionally well thought out restraint system which is snug but comfortable. Consisting of two hinged loops that come from the side, the upper body restraints look similar to a Togo stand-up but are more ergonomic. The ear and neck areas are especially open, making it easy to move your head and look around. Whereas unlike a Vekoma Flying Coaster, X is floorless so your legs are free to dangle like on an inverted coaster.
With most trains, the instinct is to go for the front or the back. With X, there is no ‘best’ seat. Unlike those on a B&M inverted coaster, every seat on X allows the same amazing, unobstructed view. Many, including myself and designer Alan Schilke, liked the middle seats the most for a couple of reasons. First, because the coaster’s forces were designed around the centre of the train, these seats run smoother and have more airtime. Secondly, they allow more of a visual interaction between you and your fellow riders. Then there is the choice of the inside or outside. Here again you may be surprised to learn that many prefer the inside. After repeat rides, it became evident that the outside seats were a little bumpier and more uncomfortable.
With a ride that seems to be rebelling against everything that has come before, it’s no surprise that X begins its trip as a backwards coaster. Once out of the station, the huge train barely rounds the first pre-lift turn before riders are teased with a subtle tilt back. Cleverly enough, this also serves the secondary purpose of making any abrupt jolts less painful on the rare occasions when a train must engage a stopped chain lift. As the train begins its ascent, the seats return to their horizontal position and seem to resemble a series of steps. While this affords everyone an amazing, panoramic view of the entire park, it also serves the deviant purpose of keeping the rest of the coaster completely hidden from view.
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Photo: Eric Sakowski |
We’ve all ridden wonderful first drops, maybe even vertical ones, but none are as tricked out as X’s. Cresting the lift, the train gains speed and dips down a small slope that tilts riders into a face-down position that will have many gasping. Then, in an unprecedented coaster stunt, the train crests over a second hump and continues to curve down into a vertical freefall, all with the control rails still maintaining riders in the face down position. After a second or so of weightlessness, the seats quickly do a forward somersault and are once again heading backwards, skimming just a few feet over a man-made ditch at the base of the 215ft (65.5m) drop.
Zooming along at 76mph (122kph), the track continues to curve upward and into the first of two Raven turns, an element that looks similar to the B&M Immelman. Once at the top, riders are again rotated into a face down position 165ft (50.3m) off the ground where they again enter a state of weightlessness. Soaring along like a pack of Supermen, all are oblivious to the fact that the body of the train has now become inverted and will remain so for at least the next 1000ft (305m) of track.
Coming out of the first Raven is a steep 157ft (48m) descent that leaves riders towards the front of the train hanging in their restraints. Thundering downward, the train makes an earnest attempt to collide with the ground before a last second pullout swoops you along the ground at 70mph (113kph). The train then undulates skyward, this time over two massive rows of towering supports that surprise riders with a near weightless, rotating bunny hop backflip. In its most basic form, this is the inversion that best exemplifies the inspirational marriage of a Zipper and a roller coaster.
X is now at the halfway mark and with so much non-stop gymnastics, designer Alan Schilke felt it would be a good time to allow riders to get their equilibrium back by seeing the horizon and knowing once again what is up and what is down. So he designed what he calls the ‘Luge Turn’. As in the Olympic sport, the seats recline back into a racing style position. This portion of the ride is as close to being normal as X ever gets.
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Photo: Eric Sakowski |
By now you are probably wondering just how smooth X really is. After all, this is an Arrow coaster. I mention it now because the first half of X is fine, with a near B&M smoothness. The second half is less so, with a few noticeable bumps and jiggles here and there. Oddly enough, this is not entirely undesirable. In many ways, much of X actually feels a little like a good wood coaster with some of the random flex and bounce we’ve come to appreciate. When X was first tested, the design had a solid connection between the seat shaft and the seat, making a ride that, in Alan Schilke’s words, “was like a bad wood coaster”. To alleviate the problem, 18 inch (46cm) wide, 2 inch (5cm) thick polyurethane spacers were placed between the seat shaft and the seats, effectively dampening the natural vibrations that come from imperfections in the track. The seats still bob back and forth a little, but now - to the relief of riders - the feel is more springy and cushioned. These design quirks have imbued X with a bit of character - something rare in a steel coaster, especially one that has come from Arrow.
Next up is an innocent looking ‘bunny hop’ that conceals a full twist that flips the entire train over, uninverting it. At the same time, riders also do a forward flip, sending everyone backwards again. This hill is also one of only two spots where the two ‘sides’ of the train follow slightly different paths as the left (or is it the right?), follows a wider arc as it flips over, giving a more satisfying dose of rotational airtime.
Located below the towering first Raven is the smaller second Raven. Just like the taller one, the lower Raven rotates riders around a circular ‘loop’ in a face down position, only this time on the outside. It also differs in that you enter from the opposite direction, first sending the cars over the top, then around and finally underneath. This tight circle of steel is also where X exhibits some of the bumpiness that is more tolerable in the inner, middle seats.
Travelling through the second Raven means once again the car chassis has become inverted and so the train rises up to the brake run by executing one final flip-rotation that returns riders to their ‘normal’, backwards facing direction. This last element is the slowest part of X, treating riders towards the back of the train to some odd, sideways hangtime on their restraints.
Is X the perfect steel coaster? Almost. A few complained that it all went by too quickly. At 3,600ft (1,097m), X is currently the world’s shortest hypercoaster and it would be nice to see longer versions in the future. Still, I met no one who did not place it firmly in their top ten steel list. But whether people seem to love X or just like it, all come away with a sense of respect and admiration.
Like skydiving or bungee jumping, you cannot truly know how X is without experiencing it first hand. Even photos of X do not do the ride justice as they cannot help you go for a ‘ride’ by following along a ‘path’ like we all do with other coasters we have yet to experience. X is not a coaster that will allow you to judge it after just a couple of rides. Like a good wood coaster, it must be challenged many times before all of its mysteries are revealed. But that is what makes X so special. It is a coaster to seek out and discover.
What might be most amazing about X is that it was Arrow who managed to pull it off. In a bid to show the industry that they were always up to the task, the talented Utah design team followed through with their ambitions and turned what many thought was a fantastic but unworkable idea into reality. Credit should also go to the generosity of Six Flags and Gary Story who opened their wallet on such an experimental project. This was no Stealth but a huge, full scale hypercoaster, filled with unproven mechanics. Most of all, we should thank Alan Schilke, the Arrow engineer whose creative talents brought us a bold new ride that could not have come at a better time. So please, come on out to Six Flags Magic Mountain and “go for a spin” into the 4th Dimension of coastering.
| Xtreme Designer | ||
Few steel roller coasters bear the signature of one designer in quite the same way as X. Conceived by one of Arrow Dynamics’ long time engineers, Alan Schilke, it took years before his radical coaster idea was taken seriously enough to make into reality. An Indiana native who graduated from Perdue University with a degree in structural engineering, Alan’s early exposure to coasters was at his home park of Kings Island (Cincinnati, Ohio) where he became intrigued with such unusual design traits as the tilted section of trick track on the Togo stand-up coaster King Cobra. His first exposure to the amusement industry was in the early 90’s as a structural consultant to Arrow on such rides as Anaconda, Steel Phantom, Drachen Fire, Desperado and The Big One. In the mid 90’s he finally joined Arrow as an employee, working on the Big Dipper at Sydney, Australia’s now defunct Luna Park (now operating as the Cyclone at Dreamworld). A few years later Fiesta Texas’s Road Runner Express opened, the first coaster for which he contributed to the layout design. In 1999, Alan started to reveal his flair for coaster design when Dollywood (Nashville, Tennessee) opened the Tennessee Tornado, a triple looper that introduced a unique inversion called a loop-screw that Schilke had created. It was also during the latter half of the 90’s that Alan began to think more seriously about developing an idea he had been toying with for some time. Manufactured by Chance, the Zipper is a popular fairground ride where riders are spun head over heels in small, two seat cages that travel around an elliptical track that revolves at the top of a central support. Disorienting, forceful and sometimes intense, the crazy contraption had always been Alan’s favourite portable ride and he began to think about how it might be possible to combine the rotating seat with a roller coaster. Alan continued to refine his concept further, creating an innovative, cantilevered train whereby a separate control rail would determine the rotation of each car at any given point on the ride. It was dubbed the 4th Dimension and with a short, animated video clip on hand, they briefly met Six Flags president Gary Story in February 2000 at a nearby airport, not knowing what to expect. Thrilled with what he saw, the new design was given the green light. Six Flags Magic Mountain (Valencia, California) was the lucky park chosen for the new ride and the park’s president, Del Holland, gave them only one stipulation: that it be taller than Viper. Alan and his team went to work on an ambitious design, incorporating a non-stop succession of at least half a dozen never-before-seen ride elements. Even after construction began, people kept telling Alan it would be too wild and disorienting for the general public. Riders would become dizzy and sick. Alan knew that as long as the acrobatic rolls and flips were done in spots of low G’s and the seats were not upside down during the positive G-filled valleys, he could keep riders’ blood flowing normally. X’s success has proved him right. X is only the beginning; Alan would love to experiment further. For future designs he would like to split the train with one side facing forwards and the other backwards. Even more variations could arise from alternating the control rails, allowing such manoeuvres as flipping the seat twice on the left side but only once on the right. And then there is the desire to do a launched 4th Dimension coaster. It would seem the possibilities are endless. Alan’s next project may well be the huge shuttle coaster planned for the Las Vegas Stratosphere Tower. The casino is now looking into the possibility of placing the coaster structure on the opposite side of the tower where it would run over the roof of the casino entrance instead of across Las Vegas Boulevard. X’s late opening makes it unlikely that you will see the next 4th Dimension before 2004. You can be sure when the word starts to spread, parks everywhere will be lining up with orders for this revolutionary new ride. Until then, Alan hinted that he will be hard at work on even more inventive track twisting concepts. |
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