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Tallest Roller Coaster in the World
Coaster Art Guy writes "Cedar Point amusement park unveiled the tallest roller coaster in the world today. Top Thrill Dragster launches you from 0 to 120 MPH in 4 seconds via a hydraulic launch. The dragster looking like cars take you straight up a 420 foot tower, into a top hat element, and twists you 270 degrees straight down. All in about 20 seconds from start to finish. How about that one? Also check out the POV video here Quicktime or here Windows Media Player."
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Taken directly from http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/inside_park/rides /thrill/_ttd/specs/diary/index.cfm
Date: January 09, 2003
Entry: Catching Up
By: Monty Jasper
Vice President of Maintenance and Construction
You have no idea what a relief it is to finally be able to talk about Top Thrill Dragster. It's the most exciting project I've ever worked on, and keeping it a secret for more than a year has been tough! So far, we've met our milestones, but there are still some big ones up ahead. Overall, I'm pleased with how well things have gone.
I'm sure you've been keeping track (no pun intended) of the ride through the webcams. As you can see, about 90 per cent of the ride is up, and we're well on schedule for the steel erection portion of the work. Our biggest challenge on Top Thrill Dragster was to put up the steel as soon as possible so winter didn't delay the project. We really needed to beat the clock on this one, and despite the winds in November and December, and the recent snow, we're doing okay on the track work. The crew did a great job under some major adverse conditions.
A few sections of track and support columns still need to be put in place once all the heavy equipment is removed from the infield. We're keeping one of the cranes for a little bit longer to install the elevator that'll go to the top of the tower, put catwalks in place, to allow us to torque the bolts on the track and inspect it all.
The foundation for the station is done. The station has an incredible clamshell design, and I predict it will be magnificent.
Work on one of the electrical rooms is 40 per cent complete, and the hydraulic room is about half-finished. The electrical work overall is about 20 per cent complete, and the electrical component of the project is extremely important. Top Thrill Dragster will require a lot of power, because it's taking roller coasters to a whole new level of energy and speed.
Because we'll be dealing with heat and speeds no one has ever contended with before, we're going to need a lot of time to deal with these issues, and Top Thrill Dragster will undergo extensive testing. I'm shooting to have it fired up so we'll have everything resolved in plenty of time for Opening Day, May 4. Testing will include a partial pull-through, and sending a train with a clearance template attached.
That's it for now. I'm looking forward to riding it, how about you?
Cedar Point's Millenium Force coaster is 310 feet high.
The current highest out and back coaster, according to Guinness, is the Steel Dragon in Japan.
best web host ever
--more naked
Very popular slashdot journal for adul
Cedar Point is one of the nicest amusement parks in the world. It is clean, they have a lot of good rides, the audience is very well behaved, and the lines are short (in relation to other theme parks). Last two years I went during the weekends of fall, and on Sunday we were able to ride every ride on the park twice in 4 hours.
In case Cedar Point's servers are going for a ride, here is more information:
:)
Stats
http://www.rcdb.com/installationdetail1896.htm
Press Release
http://www.rcdb.com/document82.htm
Pictures
http://www.rcdb.com/installationgallery1896.htm
Now, go slashdot rcdb instead.
Dr. Demento On The 'Net!
WMP, QT Low,, QT High
s /thrill/_ttd/video/index.cfm
Those link seems to be working, even though the slashdot ones don't.
Of course, now that I just embedded those in a Slashdot page, the links are promptly dead. However, the main page still seems to function, and lets you choose the same options listed above. http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/inside_park/ride
-Sara
Probably because at 120 MPH you need to add 176 feet to the rollercoaster for every imperial second you want to add to the ride.
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Cedar Point is a one admission fee-for-everything in the park (ridewise) It doesn't matter if the cycle 100 or 10000 people through an hour.
sig--we don't need no goddamn sig
What is the procedure regarding the weater on coasters
Closed when it is: thundering, raining, or windy. I think at Cedar Point they hand out numbers/line passes if you are in line when they close. Then, if they re-open, just show up with your number and you get priority in line.
The millenium force gets 1600 riders/hr. This one is predicted to get 1500. Usually the turnover is dictated by the size of a train and how fast you can load/unload them. There will be a train going up the hill, one on the track and one in the house loading/unloading. When they are going 70-120 mph, you'd need an awfully long track to change this model. Since this coaster is so fast, there will only be one train going up the hill or on the track. All the others will be loading/unloading and keep the line moving that way.
I think the reason it is short is twofold. 1) Cedar Point is on an peninsula and space is getting scarce. 2) No one really cares what comes after the first hill.
I don't believe it is as simple as some of the "screw the customer and move 'em along" remarks would lead you to believe
Compared to the "commericial" amusement parks like Disney and Six Flags, Cedar Point is quite affordable.
I took a tour of three different parks in Ohio last summer in a week for coaster riding (Cedar Point, Six Flags Ohio and Paramount's Kings Island), and prices at Cedar Point were the cheapest. It was also the best operated park from a staffing standpoint.
There is no "fare". This was covered in a different post. It is a one time fee to get into the park. There is no per-ride cost. Both TTD and MF cost US$25 million to build (according to rcdb.com), and both take roughly the same riders per hour.
I still maintain that it is a quick ride because they realize there is only so much space on the peninsula, and that to make the thing long enough to impact the riders/hr would have taken all the space the park has. So now you get a rather intense 20 second ride. Which is really what you came for. No one remembers the second hill.
Short rides aren't necessarily bad. For example, the Drop Zone (see third row of pictures) at Paramount Canada's Wonderland is very short but very exciting. In fact Theme Park Critic gives it a high rating of 8.1 out of 10. The ride doesn't do much ... just pulls you up and then drops you. Simple, short, yet elegant enough to be one of the more popular rides for thrill seekers.
I think the rest of the country would do good to follow New Jersey's lead.
This person must be trolling. Please, let this person be trolling.
Read up on the details. New Jersey has NOT outlawed "this type of ride." Rather, they have legislated caps on the G forces a ride is allowed to impose upon its riders, if that ride is to operate in the state. Cedar Point's new ride is comfortably within that maximum, and would be able to operate in New Jersey if a park there had the height variances, the business mandate and the cash required to build such a structure. Oh, and incidentally, New Jersey's G-force law will not prevent most of the injuries it is supposed to eliminate. Compare the nature of the cited injuries -- and the rides on which they occurred -- to the nature of the law's restrictions. There's little connection.
And while I'm here -- if you believe that their law against self-service at gas stations has a positive effect on public safety, you are wrong. It has a positive effect on PERCEIVED public safety, employment rates and other metrics with no bearing on your physical welfare. Self-serve is statistically quite a bit safer than full-serve. If you don't believe that, ask yourself why money-hungry insurance companies in 48 states (minus New Jersey and Oregon, where self-serve is a vicious crime against society) charge NO MORE to insure self-serve stations than full-serve stations.
So if you think this ride is dangerous, stay out of the line for it. Allow those of us who wish to "injure" ourselves to follow through on our folly. Someday you can look back wistfully on all the great experiences you watched other people have.
Don't even get me started on New Jersey's implementation of no-fault insurance. You'll never catch me owning a car in that state. Or stopping for gas there, either.
Because this type of coaster is still in its infancy. This is clearly an evolution of the Thrust Air 2000 coaster invented by S&S Sports Power, and it follows the same basic design -- a catapult launch, a 90 pitchup, a 180 pitchover to nose down, and back to the launch point, throwing in a 360 roll during the descent to heighten the thrill.
The selling points of this type of ride are the catapult launch -- instead of the long, slow crank up the lift hill, you're shot off the mark, reaching maximum speed almost immediately -- the vertical climb and dive, and the 'hang time' spent in free fall. You come out of the dive at close to the 120mph at which you entered the climb; at that speed, any of the fancy track elements you see on slower coasters would create unacceptably huge G forces on the riders -- if you look at the other 'gigacoasters', they have one or more secondary hills after the first drop to bleed some of the speed off the coaster train before they start any serious turns, and these coasters use speed and drop height as their selling points, not inversions, while the coasters that are known for their inversion count are all much slower than the gigacoasters. Top Thrill makes its mark from its height; adding more hills detracts from the purity of the single vertical hill (and the attraction of rides like SFMM's 'Superman: The Escape', which is nothing but a shot out, up, down, and back), and slowing the coaster train down enough so that inverting track elements are survivable detracts from the ride's speed. And, as another poster has pointed out, Cedar Point is running out of space to put new coasters.
Unfortunately, if they change the name to something such that "extreme" contains a capital "X" in the form of "eXtreme" or "Xtreme," everyone and their mom will want to ride it. After all, it's Xtreme!!!
Yeah, the prototype for this ride is at Knott's Berry Farm, and is named of all things, Xcelerator.
The 1.4g initial acceleration comes from the fact that the coaster is supposedly accelerated from 0Mph(0ft/s) to 120Mph(176ft/s) in about 4 seconds. This is assuming that the acceleration is constant.
However, the coaster passengers are also subjected to "g-forces" every time it changes directions(i.e. left, right, up, down, etc.) So when the coaster reaches the end of the initial acceleration to 120Mph it is subjected to a 90 change in direction (as it begins to travel perpendicular to the ground). This change in direction will result in "g-forces" applied to its passengers. As well each following turn will result in "g-force" felt by the coaster passengers.
The reason you did not experience any "g-forces" when you were traveling in your car at 120Mph is because you car was either not accelerating at all or the acceleration was to small for you detect. If you are traveling at a constant 120Mph in a straight line there is no acceleration on you or your car. If you make 1 or 2 complete counter/clockwise turns of the steering wheel or push the brake pedal to the floor you will probably feel a 'little bit' of force on your body. As well in some cars you could even push the "gas-pedal" to the floor and feel a significant acceleration at 120Mph but sure as hell not my car.
The physics behind constant acceleration is simple: for straight line acceleration divide the final velocity minus the initial velocity by the time required. Acceleration along a 2D curve is composed of a 2 components. A tangential component and a centripetal component. The tangential component is the acceleration at a tangent to some point along the curve, and can be calculated using a similar(or a simpler) technique as was used for the straight line acceleration. The centripetal acceleration for the same point occurs towards the center point of the curvature. It is equal to the velocity squared, divided by the radius of curvature. The total acceleration for the 2D curve is the root sum square of the tangential acceleration and the centripetal acceleration. The final sign(s) is/are relative to the direction of the acceleration.
It should be noted that the "g-forces" are association with a centrifugal force. Centrifugal force is not a true force it is how the body interprets inertia (resistance to acceleration). Centripetal force is a real force and it is related to the centripedal acceleration. The magnitude of the centripetal force is roughly the magnitude of the "interpreted" centrifugal force, they are just in opposite directions.
Having worked at Cedar Point as an area supervisor, it surprises me that you're disappointed with the long waits that'll probably go with this ride but bring up Mantis.
Mantis was actually one of the longest waits. Since it's a stand up coaster and the restraints are such a pain in the ass, we can typically only run two trains at a time on that track.
Dragster has 6 trains (and yes, they will all be up and going), and as you mentioned the ride time is short. I'm sure we're going to see some huge lines, but they will move quickly. Keep this in mind before you pass it up. I'm very excited about this one.
That's an older picture of Monty Jasper, basically The Man when it comes to building CP coasters. He did Millenium, Wicked Twister, and now Dragster. Very cool guy, I've talked with him a few times.
So if I'm going straight up and then getting twisted through 270 degrees how the hell am I coming straight down again ? I think you mean 180 degrees.
And two college summers. If you look at Cedar Point's recent history, you'll see that it gets a "superlative honor" new ride every other year, almost like clockwork. Fastest, tallest, first, best, etc. IMO, it's a bit of a scam job on the part of the coaster makers. The relationship between the few popular coaster ride makers and amusement parks seems to be akin to that of radar (/detector) makers and cops, or arms dealers and militaries - they get contracted to make the biggest and best of something, usually either by Cedar Fair or Paramount, they do that, then they turn around and make something slightly better for the next customer in queue. Cedar Point shops used to sell books with the histories of record-breaking coasters in the world (to underscore the fact that it's had the most, I guess), and it's almost comical to see the progression, and the coaster makers involved.
I doubt 2004 will see its summer before another park's coaster takes this honor, and I wouldn't be surprised if it were made by the same manufacturer.
Correction: the best coaster park in the world.
For sheer density of coasters per unit area, Blackpool has to be tough to beat...
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
You're friend's a moron, then. This was being constructed before the park closed, and the area was fenced off for the entire summer. And there's no such thing as "Steel Force".
c e. cfm
SOrry.. they had the area fenced, but the big hill wasnt up yet. I double checked with him this morning.
And yes, by the way, there IS something called "Steel Force".. its here in Eastern PA, (as I said) at Dorney Park, which is also owned by Cedar Fair. Steel Force is the second tallest in operation, (In the US, or in the Eastern US.. it keeps going back and forth) apparently, with Millenium Force its big brother.
http://www.dorneypark.com/rides/thrill/steelfor
Who is the moron?
Maeryk
Feminine Protection? What is that? A chartreuse flame thrower?