The world's first hypercoaster, Magnum XL-200 at Cedar Point

A hypercoaster is either any continuous-circuit roller coaster with a height or drop measuring greater than 200 feet (61 m)^[1][2] or any complete-circuit roller coaster with a height or drop between 200 and 299 feet (61 and 91 meters).^[3][4]

The term was first coined by Arrow Dynamics and Cedar Point in 1989 with the release of the world's first hypercoaster, Magnum XL-200 featuring a height of 205 feet (62 meters). It was followed by Pepsi Max Big One five years later featuring a height of 213 feet (65 m). Other roller coaster manufacturers developed models with custom names, including Mega Coasters from Intamin, Hyper Coasters from Bolliger & Mabillard, and Hyper-Hybrid Coasters from Rocky Mountain Construction.^[5] The competition between amusement parks to build increasingly taller roller coasters eventually led to giga coasters, which is a roller coaster with a height or drop between 300 and 399 feet (91 and 122 meters), strata coasters, which is a roller coaster with a height or drop between 400 and 499 feet (122 and 152 meters). For coasters between the 500 and 599 feet is no official name yet. And for coasters between the 600 and 699 there is the name: Exa coaster.

History

The world's first hypercoaster was Magnum XL-200 by Cedar Point, costing $8 million to construct. Cedar Point hired Arrow Dynamics for the design and construction began in 1988. Since its debut on May 6, 1989, Magnum XL-200 has accommodated over 36 million riders.^[6] Cedar Point's official blog states that after building the ride, "...discussion was focused on just what a roller coaster such as Magnum should be called. After all, it had no loops like most of the other large steel coasters of the time and was so much bigger and faster than its non-looping brethren. After a couple of years, the name everyone agreed upon was hypercoaster."^[7]

Description

Hypercoasters were originally built for speed and airtime, to counter the trend of constructing bigger and bigger looping coasters. To accomplish this the elements of a hypercoaster often include a large first drop, several additional drops of declining height, a large turn or helix, and then many airtime-inducing hills. Hypercoasters are commonly designed with an out and back layout, although there are occasionally hypercoasters that use a twisted layout, such as Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America, and others that combine both, such as Diamondback at Kings Island.

Hypercoasters are highly-ranked in the annual Amusement Today Golden Ticket Awards. For 2006, Six Flags New England's Superman: Ride of Steel (later named Bizarro and Superman The Ride) was ranked in first place. Others such as Magnum XL-200 (third), Nitro (fourth), and Apollo's Chariot (fifth) followed closely behind in the top five, with hypercoasters making up the majority of the Top 10 Steel Coasters in 2006.^[8] By 2010, hypercoasters completely filled the top 10, as well as 16 of the top 20.^[9]

Hypercoasters were first manufactured by Arrow Dynamics in the late 1980s to early 1990s. Since then, a number of companies, including Bolliger & Mabillard, Intamin, D. H. Morgan Manufacturing, Giovanola and others have designed and constructed hypercoasters.

Though hypercoasters are typically steel roller coasters, Son of Beast at Kings Island was the first and only wooden hypercoaster. Due to a number of issues, the ride was eventually demolished in 2012.^[10][11] In 2018, Cedar Point opened the first hybrid hypercoaster, Steel Vengeance. Steel Vengeance is the first hypercoaster manufactured by Rocky Mountain Construction.^[12]

Bolliger & Mabillard

Hyper Coaster
Goliath's first drop at Six Flags Over Georgia in Georgia.[13]
Status	In Production
First manufactured	1999
No. of installations	20
Manufacturer	Bolliger & Mabillard
Rows	8
Riders per row	4
Restraint Style	Clamshell restraints
Hyper Coaster at RCDB

A train in the splashdown element.

Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) produced 18 models over 21 years of production of hyper coasters, making it one of the more successful models manufactured by the company.^[14]

The first installation of the hyper coaster was Apollo's Chariot located in Busch Gardens Williamsburg.^[15][16] It was one of the two models released in 1999. The other being the Floorless Coaster. It was made in a similar style to the TOGO, D. H. Morgan Manufacturing and Arrow Dynamics hypercoasters. Now it has become one of the more preferred models with a success rate second only to the Inverted Coaster. In 2012, B&M decided to increase the size of its hyper coaster to exceed 300 feet. Some enthusiasts therefore classify it as a giga Coaster, although Giga coaster is a term used by Intamin for its 300-plus-foot coasters. B&M still refers to all of its models as hyper coasters.

The design of the hyper coaster includes a large lift hill then a large drop with a steep angle of descent and typically includes floater and ejector airtime hills. Only one of the B&M Hypers does not have a long out-and back layout: Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America.^[17] which features more of a twister layout. According to B&M the Hyper Coasters are a -High speed, no inversion coasters specially designed to create air time. A comfortable patented lapbar procures an incomparable feeling of freedom.-

The trains feature seven to nine cars of one row with four seats, resulting in each train seating 28 to 36 riders. Depending on the dispatch time and the number of trains the coasters typically have an hourly capacity of 1,200 to 1,500 people. Each seat features a unique clamshell restraint. Some trains used on B&M Hyper Coasters feature staggered seats, where the two outer seats are located farther back than the two center seats. This makes for a more open experience. Currently this staggered seating arrangement is only featured on four coasters: Behemoth at Canada’s Wonderland, Diamondback at Kings Island, Intimidator at Carowinds & Shambhala at PortAventura Park.

List of hypercoasters

The following is a list of roller coasters with a height of at least 200 feet (61 m). Some enthusiasts do not consider shuttle-type roller coasters to be hypercoasters, so those are listed separately.

B&M installations

Name	Park	Country	Opened	Status	Height	Drop	RCDb
Apollo's Chariot	Busch Gardens Williamsburg	USA	March 27, 1999	Operating	170 ft (52 m)	210 ft (64 m)	[108]
Behemoth	Canada's Wonderland	Canada	May 4, 2008	Operating	230 ft (70 m)	226 ft (69 m)	[109]
Candymonium	Hersheypark	USA	July 3, 2020	Operating	210 ft (64 m)		[110]
Diamondback	Kings Island	USA	April 18, 2009	Operating	230 ft (70 m)	215 ft (66 m)	[111]
Flight of the Himalayan Eagle Music Roller Coaster	Happy Valley Beijing	China	June 2019	Operating	157 ft (48 m)	157 ft (48 m)	[112]
Fury 325	Carowinds	USA	March 28, 2015	Operating	325 ft (99 m)	320 ft (98 m)	[113]
Goliath	La Ronde	Canada	May 13, 2006	Operating	174 ft (53 m)	170 ft (52 m)	[114]
Goliath	Six Flags Over Georgia	USA	April 1, 2006	Operating	200 ft (61 m)	175 ft (53 m)	[115]
Hollywood Dream: The Ride	Universal Studios Japan	Japan	March 9, 2007	Operating	144 ft (44 m)	Un­known	[116]
Intimidator	Carowinds	USA	March 27, 2010	Operating	232 ft (71 m)	211 ft (64 m)	[117]
Leviathan	Canada's Wonderland	Canada	May 9, 2012	Operating	306 ft (93 m)	306 ft (93 m)	[118]
Mako	SeaWorld Orlando	USA	June 10, 2016	Operating	200 ft (61 m)	200 ft (61 m)	[119]
Nitro	Six Flags Great Adventure	USA	April 7, 2001	Operating	230 ft (70 m)	215 ft (66 m)	[120]
Orion	Kings Island	USA	July 12, 2020	Operating	287 ft (87 m)	300 ft (91 m)	[121]
Raging Bull	Six Flags Great America	USA	May 1, 1999	Operating	202 ft (62 m)	208 ft (63 m)	[122]
Shambhala	PortAventura Park	Spain	May 12, 2012	Operating	249 ft (76 m)	256 ft (78 m)	[123]
Silver Star	Europa Park	Germany	March 23, 2002	Operating	240 ft (73 m)	220 ft (67 m)	[124]
Un­known	Hot Go Dreamland	China	Un­known	SBNO	Un­known	Un­known	[125]

Gallery

Notes

References

External links

• Bolliger & Mabillard's official website
• Intamin official website