The Amazing History of Roller Coasters

There are only 2 roller coasters in the world with a more than vertical first drop. They both have a 97 degree first drop which means they go more than straight down. Both of these roller coasters have single cars and can do inversions. They are very compact and twisty. Typhoon, located at Bobbejaanland in Belgium, is the larger of the two. It is 2198 feet long, 84 feet
tall, has 4 inversions, goes 50 mph, has a vertical lift hill (lift hills are usually about 40 degrees), and has an amazing 5 G’s on the first drop (people
black out at 10 G’s). In this picture you can see the past vertical first drop and the vertical lift hill.

Marine World and Mo

Whenever you go to an amusement park you expect it to be loud and crowded and that you might have to wait in line and hour for most rides. It was the complete opposite of that when I went to marine world on a Sunday during the school year. There were no crowds, not much noise at all, and no lines for any of the roller coasters at all and I loved it. The day I went the only noises were from the roller coasters and the games people were playing. Since Medusa is my favorite ride a Marine World I will describe it.

First you start in the station. You get into one of the cars and pull down the harness over your shoulders. Next the people who run the ride come around and if they find any empty seats or loose harnesses they push them down as tight as they can. Then you sit there for about thirty seconds until the second car is done with the ride and right behind you. Then the gates open in front of the

train and the train is propelled out of the station at about 5 miles per hour, goes downward on a little U-turn and then is on the lift hill.

The lift hill goes 8 or 10 miles per hour and takes about thirty seconds to get to the top of the lift hill. When it gets to the full 150 foot height it has a fake drop where it goes down about 5 feet has a slight turn to the right and then you go straight down the rest of the first drop at 70 degrees reaching 65 mph. It then goes into a 128 foot tall vertical loop followed by a 112 foot tall dive loop. Then it goes into a zero G roll followed right by an immelman. After that it has two corkscrews and a helix (a helix is not an inversion it is a full circle going flat) for a total of seven inversions.

Medusa is the only floorless roller coaster in California. At Marine world there are 9 roller coasters and only 7 of them are operating. There is the Boomerang, Cobra, Kong, Medusa, Roadrunner express, Roar, and V2: Vertical Velocity. The two roller coasters that are not operating are Greased Lightnin’ which is in
storage and Zonga which is “SBNO” or standing but not operating.

During my interview with Mo I learned a lot about how roller coasters are designed and the safety measures put into them. Mo’s company only designs wooden roller coasters. When I asked what Mo had studied in college to get a

job designing roller coasters he told me that he got degrees in mechanical and civil engineering.

Next I was wondering if he ever had to have another job in the design industry to have experience to get a job designing roller coasters. He told me he had just come straight out of college and wanted to get a job designing roller coasters and he got the job (I hope its like that for me because I think it would be fun to have a job designing roller coasters).

Also he told me that there usually aren’t any positions available and he was lucky that he got the job. I learned that his company only has about 20 full time employees and only about 5 of them actually design the roller coasters. I also learned that to design a roller coaster only takes about three months and then to get it built takes about another 9 months. He knew this because his company supervises the building to make sure nothing is done wrong.

When I wanted to know if there were any restrictions on roller coasters he told me that they only have to go by the local building codes but that they are required to pressure treat the wood. He said their roller coasters are built so strong that one they built in Florida has survived 2 hurricanes. This
company also built the Roar at Marine World.