X-Flights first test run.

It might be a terrible station by design, but that is one kick a** eagle. That baby must have cost a pretty penny!!!

I don't understand why they are making these new rides so short. They are basically a few inversions and the ride is over. X-flight looks like it might be a tad longer than Superman, but, it seems that they put more into the older B&M rides. Mantis and Raptor at Cedar Point are good examples of a decent length for a B&M coaster, and Raging Bull makes them all look tiny. So, why not go for something longer? Still looks like it might be fun though.

As for the station, I don't see anything wrong with it. And, I agree with some of the other posts about it looking like an airport hanger. Heck, if you came to my local airport, and saw where they kept the planes, you would think that station is ultra modern, instead of a falling down piece of crap. Also, it all looks unfinished. So there might be something that they are going to add to it that we haven't seen yet. A little landscaping is certainly due.

I agree that the station for the Batman coaster, is probably one of the most brilliant and well themed stations out there. I think it actually adds to the excitement of the ride. Batman is still one of my favorite coasters.

I agree it looks too short, but I imagine cost is the main issue. Steel prices keep rising and making new installations increasingly expensive. I was pretty shocked to see that Leviathan delivers a 3.5 minute ride for 2012, but then again, it had a $28 million price tag.

@Timber-Rider, the technology and the cost of steel is why you are seeing shorter-length coasters. A coaster like X-Flight costs in the $22-$25 million range (and I think this explains the "cost-effective" station design.) Leviathan is pushing $30 million; these costs are very difficult to recoup, thus why you see a lot of parks add more attractions to their water parks which have a greater return on investment.

Interestingly, there is one more $30 million dollar'ish B&M contract purchase out there to come in the near future. While the coaster enthusiast community loves these type of rides I suspect it will be the end of purchases in this price range for a while.

WildStangAlex said:

Wow the station is a let down. I think the best station at Great America belongs to Batman, and the rest are all lacking. That being said the ride still looks excellent.

The best one was Iron Wolf solely because it's design confused guests and resulted in many (most?) people walking right past the row 1 line. 2-3 train waits for front row laps on Wolf is something I already miss.

Well I think this can be said for any "new" prototype that has been introduced - no? B&M's Iron Wolf was nothing spectacular - height wise, but still delivered an amazingly intense ride. It wasn't until a few years had passed, that the giant B&M Standups really took shape, i.e.: Riddlers, Mantis, etc...

Same can be said for the inverted models. Batman was the original B&M inverted, and while short in height - still holds the most intense ride at Great America, in my opinion. Again, years later - the bigger models were built, i.e.: Raptor, Montu, etc...

Going based on history, I think these first models of the wing-riders will only pave the way for larger versions somewhere down the road.

I'm still at a loss why people are comparing this ride to the giganticness of Raging Bull. Would I call X-Flight short - in comparison to Raging Bull? Of course, but they are two completely different coasters, built for two completely different sensations. When/if Great America builds another coaster reasonably close to 200+ feet - everything will seem like a relatively shorter and/or smaller ride.

I wonder if SF will stay on top of the maintenance on this one............NOT. Bet the down time overshadows the uptime.

timberguy said:

Bet the down time overshadows the uptime.

Why? Apart from the position of the riders, I don't think this differs much (or at all) from a typical B&M sitdown. It isn't launched and the seats don't spin- which is where Intamin and Arrow ran into problems. On top of all that, SFGAm is probably one of the better parks when it comes to maintenance and upkeep. The 9 year old Superman will probably see more downtime than this, but no one will care because it's Superman.

Why the negativity, especially from a ride that isn't even operational yet?

ClubXJeff, are you new around here? It is an unwritten rule that rides must go through the gauntlet of negative talk before it opens. Always.

someone said:

Something something something why don't they make these rides longer?

Ok, I'll bite. The "real" ride time (measured as the moment the first car leaves the lift to the moment the first car hits the brakes) for X-Flight is right around 45 seconds and in that time manages 5 inversions. For a B&M ride with no MCBR, that's pretty much what you get, wing-rider or not, regardless of the price of steel or date of installation, and it's never stopped rides from being amazing in the past...

For example: Nemesis, Talon, Black Mamba, and the B:TRs all come in at 45s or less, lift-to-brakes. Even Tatsu (aka the biggest, best flyer) comes in right around 45s lift to brakes.

So, while I would also love (love love love love) to see a longer, taller, faster wing-rider, the only one of the existing rides that strikes me as 'too short' is Swarm.

When are they building the keyhole?! I WANT THE KEYHOLE!

Aren't The Swarm and X-Flight the same basic ride? They look nearly identical to me.

Current progress on the "keyhole" tower.

:) Thanks!!!

Raven-Phile said:

Aren't The Swarm and X-Flight the same basic ride? They look nearly identical to me.

The only thing that is really close on them are the first drop into the Zero-G. Swarm's drop twists to the left, so you are in the roll for longer, while X-Flight's twists to the right and therefore produces a shorter roll. So even those are not really the same.

Huh? Why would twisting left v. right make a difference on the length of the roll into the drop? If they both end up inverted then the difference you highlight doesn't imply the conclusion you claim.

Was thinking the same thing cdude3. How in gods name does it make a difference?

X-Flight has an immelemann for the third inversion, Swarm has an inclined loop followed by a turn

If the stats I've seen are accurate, The Swarm is also close to 500 feet shorter than X-Flight.