Intamin, a creator of record-breaking amusement rides, has revealed details of Falcons Flight at the IAAPA Expo. The ride at Six Flags Qiddiya, Saudi Arabia, will be the tallest, fastest, and longest rollercoaster in the world.
Daniel Schoppen, vice president of design and development at Intamin, describes the ride as “the roller coaster evolution of the century.”
Record-breaking coaster
The trailblazing ride will be located near Riyadh at Six Flags Qiddiya, and makes use of the desert’s natural terrain and a roughly 600-foot-tall natural cliff wall.
The train has been designed so that riders experience both the desert’s environment and coaster forces. It features a front car which is sculpted as a falcon’s head, with seating for two riders. The other cars can accommodate four passengers, with an open design which increases the feeling of speed and enhances the riders’ experience of flying over the cliff edge and across the park.
Each train has a capacity of 14 riders across 4 cars, and the coaster will operate 6 trains simultaneously for a high capacity per hour.
Falcons Flight features a steel track that extends to 13,123 feet (approximately 4,300m), which is almost 1.5 times longer than the current record holder, Steel Dragon 2000 at Nagashima Spaland in Japan.
The height difference from the ride’s lowest to the highest point is approximately 640 feet (195m), which is nearly 200 feet higher than Kingda Ka, the current record holder at Six Flags Great Adventure. The ride launches at approximately 100mph (160km/h) to the top of the cliff. From there, it drops vertically down, achieving a top speed of 156mph (250km/h), 7 mph faster than Formula Rossa at Ferrari World Abu Dhabi.
This top speed is supported by the use of a magnetic launch system equipped with Linear synchronous motors (LSMs). The coaster includes three LSM launches, with acceleration from more than 700 LSM modules with water cooling. The total number of motors is six times that of Islands of Adventure’s Velocicoaster.
In addition to its record-breaking design, the ride also features an array of innovative technologies.
Falcons Flight is equipped with next-generation LSM vehicles with completely machined chassis, with no welds. The chassis also features extra-large running wheels and specifically designed rims to improve cooling, which is required due to the ride’s high speeds and ambient temperatures. Furthermore, the trains have a curved windshield, which allows riders to enjoy the experience without goggles, and fully programmable onboard lights with 35 individually controlled light modules.
Earlier this year, Intamin celebrated the launch of the new Zokkon LSM Multi Launch motorbike coaster at Fuji-Q Highland, one of the most popular amusement parks in Japan. Zokkon extends to over 1,300 meters long, with a height of 24 metres and top speeds exceeding 70 kilometres per hour.
