Whatever happened to the Intamin wing coaster?

After Furious Baco, I was surprised that nobody ordered any more wing coasters from Intamin. Then all of a sudden B&M showed up and sold 5 of them (with 2 in the works). Is B&M's design that much better?

I've heard nothing but bad things about Baco. I'm actually a little surprised it ranked as high as #116 in Mitch's Poll based on all the crap it gets.

I think it doesn't help that FB was a prototype with a launch and some pretty extreme speed and forces going on. Obviously the seating arrangement is the same idea as B&M's but in execution what the two companies did with it couldn't be more different.

I loved Furious Baco... in the front inside seats. The outside seats have the same vibrational issues as the outside seats on the Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerangs and the S&S 4D coasters. Plus the farther back you go, the worse it got.

Furious Baco is Furious in the Back-o

What about this odd bird?

http://rcdb.com/4312.htm?p=23719

I wonder if we'll ever see any more?

I wonder if it's cracked the CoasterBuzz Top 100 yet?

I didn't realize that S&S ever actually sold one of those.

From everything I've heard from engineering types, the thing about the variations on wing coasters (including the Arrow 4D) is that you need to find a way to minimize or cancel out the vibration. I'm not sure that I totally understand it, but it means channeling vibration back on to itself so that it goes away. It's conceptually similar to the way that noise canceling headphones work. It seems like B&M is the closest to getting right.

Well, and I'm no expert either, but this S&S model includes very springy shock absorbers designed to do that very thing, and I recall them promoting it as the best solution to the 'problem'. I've seen POV vids and the ride seems bouncy, rather than vibrate-y when the chassis performs its roll-over stunts.

Of course, this particular ride is small, short, and definitely geared to the family. It almost seems like a working prototype, you know, just trying it out on a few folks in an out of the way place. Which might be smart.

There was talk of 1 or 2 more of these being built. But, that obviously hasn't happened yet.

Those S&S wing coasters (what are they calling it?) look like a lot of fun, even if they aren't extremely forceful.

Here is a POV video. Please ignore the source. It is the only POV I could find.

Winged coasters just don't "feel" very Intamin-like to me. I think B&M did a very good job on theirs, especially GateKeeper.

The S&S layouts appear to be much more tame than those of Intamin and B&M. So much so that I doubt vibrations, stresses, etc. would be that big of a problem.

I thought Sky Rush was Intamin's experiment into half wing/ half standard train.

If anything Skyrush was more of a floor less experiment. They did a wing coaster well before it.

And the vibration on Skyrush is much more noticeable on the wing seats, so whatever changes they made to a half and half design didn't change things much.

Skyrush's trains, by the way, are similar to those of Diamondback and Behemoth. The odd-numbered rows are normal, the even-numbered rows are out to the side. I can understand why both of those hypercoasters are amazing in the back seat.

The outer seats on Skyrush are completely off to the sides of the track rails. The outer seats on those B&M mega coasters still ride over the rails.

But it's still [awesome] airtime!

matt. said:

I've heard nothing but bad things about Baco. I'm actually a little surprised it ranked as high as #116 in Mitch's Poll based on all the crap it gets.

Furius Baco was easily my favorite ride at Port Aventura. Really great launch, surprising air, speed that never lets up. I don't know what someone would hate about it except that it's over much too quickly.

Where did you sit on the ride?

Front, middle, and back for my three rides. I fully expected Shambhala to be the star of the park, but Furius was the surprise hit.