I got my latest copy of Wired magazine in the mail today and to my great joy Thrust Air 2000 is on the cover! The author visited the S&S shop in Logan, Utah and rode the prototype. This suggest the article was being worked on for some time, but it still has some great information. Topics covered include some basic information on the thrill ride industry, A bit of a biography on Stan Checketts, how TA2k works, the competition of LIMs & LSMs, and lots of other good stuff. It might have been out there already, but the article also states the the capacity of TA2k is a relatively low 960 riders per hour.
Some really good stuff:
The author writes that when he visited the S&S facility that Stan was busy running a sales pitch on 2 "crisply dressed businessmen from Cedar Fair."
Stan says that the TA2k we've heard is headed to Asia will launch 0-107 mph in less than 4 seconds!
Stan also says the spring will debut a yet to be named tower ride where people will be strapped into parachute like harnesses, shot up 300 feet, and then inverted for the free-fall down. Any one heard anything else about this?
Also: The article also states that a Vekoma Cliffhanger "tilt coaster" was opened in Taiwan in January. I've seen the CGI stuff at Vekoma's site but I don't remember ever hearing that one of these was being built, let alone operating. Anyone know anything about this?
Anyway, its a good article and I would suggest anyone interested in S&S/TA2k to give it a read.
