Coasters that Revolutionized the Industry

Well, you should talk about Coney Island's Comet. That was huge for the coaster industry. Mantis provided somewhat of a leap in stand-up coasters. You could talk about Top Thrill Dragster. Talk some about X. Try to find something on Flying Coasters. Also try Medusa, the first Floorless Coaster.

You should also find out about the new coaster at HersheyPark. It could be big.

Oh, one more thing. You might want to include something about Corkscrew at Cedar Point. This was the first coaster with 3 inversions.

i was just randomly naming off coasters that i been on that i thought might of revolutionized the industry...then again when i was at disney i didn't go on btmr because i thought it was a train so please call me stupid now. ;)

In your report you might want to talk about the different types of rollercoasters available for a small to midsize themepark and how most of those small to midsize parks choose wooden coasters or small steel ones. Indiana Beach and Holiday World are a few examples. You may also wanna talk about the home of coasters that revolutionized the industry Cedar Point.

I got one question for all of you coaster enthusiasts...was Oblivion truly the first Vertical Drop Coaster? or were there others? I truly don't know.

Was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad the first coaster to have 2 fatal accidents and still be running? ;)

Clearly, not enough people are taking advantage of m-w.com. Great site.

Revolutionize (verb) - to change fundamentally or completely

Kyle - only one fatality on BTMRR. The Coney Island Cyclone's done in a bunch more.

After giving it some thought, didn't the Bat change the world of suspended coasters? It was the fisrt Arrow suspended coaster andalthow it only lasted for 2 seasons, much was learned from it. *** Edited 4/10/2004 3:51:31 AM UTC by Dane186***

Austin- Then you'd have to include SFDL's Viper. It was the first coaster with 5 inversions. Anyone know what the first with 4, 6, 7, or more were? Just out of curiosity.

Again, a coaster like the Beast did not forever change the industry. It's a great, highly successful coaster, but lets look at the definition again that Olsor provided:

"Revolutionize (verb) - to change fundamentally or completely"

The Beast didn't do that, and I'm a Beast fan.

Corkscrew at CP, nope. Just because a coaster adds one more of an existing thing doesn't make it revolutionary.

Sorry. I said "Coney Island's Comet" when it's actually Cyclone.

Well, dig into the launched coaster. Lately that has been a huge craze and it could be argued that it has been a mini-revolution within the past 5 years.

Just a thought...

Now I would call the original launched Schwartzkopf a revolutionary coaster! :)

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WoodFan said:
Lightning Racer, Hershey parkFirst Dueling Racing Woodie coaster built by GCI.

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um, no. not a good example of a coaster that "revolutioned" the industry.

well I know that the Kennywood's Pippin was the first wooden coaster to be taken apart and turned into another coaster-ThunderBult

and Kennywood's Steel Phantom was the first Steel coaster to do the same

Yes ShaneDenmark. While The Bat itself was not necessarily successful, the concept of having a coaster car beneath the track as such has radically changed the industry such to the point that you have B&M inverted, Vekoma Inverteds, Invertigos, Impulse coasters.

Go back to 1982 when The Bat was introduced and I bet people would have looked at you as if you had a third eye if I you had told them that a significant part of the coaster world would include roller coasters that hung beneath the track.

I think you have to include the Magnum to some extent Peabody. It fundamentally changed the way coaster designers have looked at height as a barrier. Look how long it took to get from 100 feet to 200 feet and how slowly they even approached the 150 foot barrier. Now, look at the progression of coasters since the 200 foot barrier was broken. The 200 foot barrier was this glass ceiling that was not touched but once it was, it set off an incredible new wave of coastering.

Phantom's Revenge is not the first steel coaster to be "turned into" another coaster. I'm not positive what the first one really was, but I do know that MGM Grand's Lightning Bolt came before the Phantom's Revenge conversion.

-Nate

The Bat was NOT the first suspended coaster to operate. Schwarzkopf has one before the Bat, however like The Bat it was also not successful. In fact Big Bad Wolf was supposed to be a Schwarzkopf Suspended before Arrow took over the project.

*** Edited 4/10/2004 3:54:25 AM UTC by Mamoosh***

Coaster that were/are revolutionary and my explanations:

SFGAm's Batman The Ride: sure it broke off of the suspended coaster concept, but what Bolliger & Mabillard did was allow tight hairpin turns, inversions of every sort, and floorless, open-sided coaches - maneuvers Arrow's *very popular and novel at that time* suspended coasters could not pull off.

Disneyland's Matterhorn Bobsleds: Changed the way the industry perceived in manufacturing steel rollercoasters. The ride's first-of-its-kind tubular rail setup is now a major standard in the majority of all steel coasters that preceded it. It also allowed for more radical coaster maneuvers - and inversions.

Thrust Air 2000/Hypersonic XLC: Though catapult coasters existed previous to this one ride, its revealing in '99 at the S&S plant boggled the mind of people that heard of it with its ridiculously outrageous acceleration of 0-80 within 1.8 seconds. The new method of propulsion was also a new energy conservative alternative to the previous electromagnetic LSM and LIM rides - something parks were scrambling for. This one ride spawned for more outrageous forms of similar "extreme launch" coasters that were built to be "quicker off the line", such as Dodonpa, Xcelerator, Top Thrill Dragster, and Storm Runner.

Being the tallest and fastest or being the first racing/dueling kind in its class doesn't make a ride "revolutionary."

Thanks Kraxleridah, i needed more of an explaination of why these coasters were revolutionary!

Coasters the revolutionized the industry could mean different things to different people and that is why I think i needed the opinions/explainations of why they were revolutionary. It is not that I was trying to get out of doing research!

And in regard to earlier posts, I have said I wasn't sure about the coasters I talked about, so don't get on my case for giving wrong information.

The first suspended coaster was "Alpenflug" built by aviation company Messerschmitt in 1974. It had the same design flaw as "The Bat" which opened seven years after this: Non banked track! It was closed halfway through its first appearance at Munichs Oktoberfest and scrapped. Schwarzkopf was not involved in this project.

Some coasters revolutionized the industry in a much more subtle way than marketable worlds firsts or world records:
-The invention of Polyurethan wheels by Arrow.
-The design principle of the Heartline on "Mindbender" and "Shockwave".
-The first use of spline-functions in track bending on "Z-Force".

though i'm not 100%, i think Euclid Beach Park, Cleve, ohio had the first Flying Turns coaster... (park clsed in 1969)
bummer, it was a great park...