History of the Tallest Roller Coasters in the World?

I've been searching for the history of the "tallest roller coaster in the world." I haven't had any luck.

I was wondering if anyone knew where I could find , or could help me make a list with this information. Basically, I just would like to see a timeline with each of the tallest coasters in the world and when they were built.

I think it would be kind of neat to plug 'em all in Excel and see, based on the data, when and how high coasters should be over the next couple of years.

Thanks!

www.rcdb.com

I tried there, but I didn't think there was a way to find or specify the record holders in, say, 1957. *** Edited 2/1/2005 9:44:45 PM UTC by ZNitroMan***

Look again.

http://www.rcdb.com/coastersearch.htm

Use that feature and sort by height.

Ok, maybe I am just an idiot, because I can't figure it out. I can get a list of the currnet tallest coasters. But some coasters on that list were never the tallest coaster in the world. What I want, for example, is to know what the tallest coaster was in 1975 and what coaster took the record away and when.

I just want a list of all of the coasters that, at one time, had the title "the tallest roller coaster in the world."

If I can do that on RCDB, can someone give specific instructions... like "RCDB for Dummies" :)

Okay, sort by height and put it on Display Statistics. That gives you the height and the years opened. You can look for the first date of the year you want, or you can copy and past it to excel and then sort.

edit: If you want to copy and past, right click and hit select all and then copy. I can't seem to do the normal copy on that site, but you can still get it to excel and then delete what you don't need. *** Edited 2/1/2005 11:01:36 PM UTC by RavenTTD***

One interesting thing (to me, at least) that I noticed is that there are still only 34 coasters in the world that are 200 feet high or taller.

Enthusiasts often talk about things like "when will 500 feet be broken" or "how high can we go" or refer to a 200 foot coaster as 'lame' or 'old news' - and there's still only 34 of them in the world (based on RCDB's stats which include the underconstruction Sheikra as the 34th to break that height mark and include B&R at SFGAdv as 2 coasters and also included Speed which, IIRC, the train probably doesn't break 200 feet even though the spike is 224 feet high)

Heck, a coaster 200 feet off the ground is still a relatively rare thing. :)

The above methods are definitely tedious processes complicated by the fact that RCDB can't specify an exact date within a year for many older coasters. Other people have tried to do this. You can see the results at http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.roller-coaster/browse_thread/thread/b1ebf64deaeb61f1/dce106a809980484

Anything prior to 1950 can be complicated. There isn't a satisfactory level of research.

I have also wondered where I could find this list. I could have sworn that when PKI built Vortex, it was hailed as the world's tallest coaster for a very short time.

I know of these (closed-circuit coasters):

1978: Colossus, 125-feet

1978: Gemini, 125-feet

1988: ShockWave, 170-feet

1989: Magnum XL-200, 201-feet

1994: Desperado, 209-feet

1994: Pepsi-Max Big One, 213-feet

1997: Fujiyama, 259-feet

2000: Millennium Force, 310-feet

2000: Steel Dragon 2000, 318-feet

2003: Top Thrill Dragster, 420-feet

2005: Kingda Ka, 456-feet

I think the Great American Scream Machine held the record when it opened in 1973, at 105'. That's at least one more step back.

I think it would be kind of neat to plug 'em all in Excel and see, based on the data, when and how high coasters should be over the next couple of years.

Except that information will not give you that answer.

Based on those numbers I think we will hit 463 in about 45 minutes....give or take.

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UBRhino said:
That wouldn't be accurate at all.

We went from 200 to 300 after 11 years. 3 years later we hit 400. 2 years later we hit 450.

It's just impossible to predict.

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It may be true that those numbers at a glance are unpredictable, but the rate at which full curciut coasters are getting taller is much more consistent.

I don't know if it's true, but i have heard that the Loch Ness Monster at BGW held the title for a while.

I posted a thread about LNM vs Gemini a few weeks ago. LNM was higher than Gemini, but Gemini had a larger drop. They both opened the same year, but I cannot find records of the exact opening dates, although LNM probably opened first.

I understand that the information won't be anywhere near accurate. I was just interested to see what kind of results I would get plotting time vs. height.

Thanks for the information!

You forgot Steel Phantom (1991) - 225 ft. which basically trumps everything until Fujiyama.

*** Edited 2/2/2005 3:43:49 AM UTC by Impulse-ive***

I think the height thing is getting rediculous, once upon a time record holders had a ride time longer then a minute, now a days if you are tall you have a short ride time (even when you factor in the difference in lift vs. launch time).

Imagine if a 400 footer was designed as an out and back like Magnum, just think of how long, fast and sweet that would be. Now think of TTD: 400ft drop followed by block brakes, what a waste of momentum. Yes I know it would be really expensive, but could we at least have a 400footer with a ride time (minus the lift) over 1:30?

Touchdown....

If it was over 1:30 and at the speeds a 400 footer travels at, then you would deffinitly be looking at a ride far longer than the Beast and far more expensive than TTD/KK. It will not happen. Trust me.