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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.
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Very popular slashdot journal for adul
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!
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.
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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
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.