X-Flight coaster coming in 2012

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Cheesehead Dave
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X-Flight coaster coming in 2012

Post by Cheesehead Dave »

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2011 ... 709019955/
Six Flags Great America in Gurnee announced they will add a new, state-of-the-art roller coaster for the 2012 season.

“X-Flight” is considered by the theme park as a groundbreaking “wing coaster” featuring cutting-edge technology, officials said in an early morning news release.

They said they are the first to announce plans for a wing coaster in the U.S.

Officials said in the release that X-Flight will take riders on a flight that defies gravity, with no track above or below them.

Riders sit in pairs, suspended on either side of the track with their feet dangling, as they begin their climb up a 12-story plunge launching them into speeds of 55 mph.

Riders will twist through 3,000 feet of intense drops and five inversions, including a barrel roll and a zero-g roll.
Later in the article, it mentions that it will be built in County Fair. Will there be time to take down Iron Wolf and build this in that spot in time, or will it go in the already-vacant spot where Splashwater Falls used to be?
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dlmtechnology
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Re: X-Flight coaster coming in 2012

Post by dlmtechnology »

Looking at pictures and the ride animation, seeing the locations of Sky Trek Tower, Bull, and Demon, I'm saying its in the old Raceway/Splash area. Now having Raceway/Splash as my home unit, it saddens me, that my cars might be gone, but further inspection of the video looks like there might be a possibility that Raceway might actually stay. But I'm guessing that here that Daredevil Dive might be gone as well as the Kid Zone cars to accommodate the track and support beams.

The picture of the track layout says to me that with the location of the station that the entrance of the ride is going to be near the current exit of Splash, which would allow the line to round the corner and go past the Farmer's Market, although maybe the picture is backwards and the entrance is going to be be Splash's entrance which would allow for use of the existing queue bridge, 2 queue houses and overflow queue, plus then a Flash Pass entrance is already there too using the existing bridge that exits Raceway.

With Iron Wolf leaving Raceway may move there, possibly part of Camp Cartoon, or Dive might move there and be more like St. Louis' Skycoster where you hover just inches over the ground instead of 20 feet above the ground like its current location, no reason they couldn't install another bridge over the Central corridor. Or the Kid Zone cars become part of Camp Cartoon and Raceway is gone (no more gas powered cars, all electric!)
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RLAiello
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Re: X-Flight coaster coming in 2012

Post by RLAiello »

Regardless of where it goes, it looks like a really cool new addition to the park. First BIG coaster in a long time! Very good news!
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Re: X-Flight coaster coming in 2012

Post by FParker185 »

Great American Raceway had it's last season in 2010. The track was mostly torn up in the off season and of course has been closed all year this year. The cars were dispersed around the chain.
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Re: X-Flight coaster coming in 2012

Post by jimmy gimbels »

It is interesting how different press releases for X-flight have different statistics for the Park including number of children's areas and size of the water park. Six flags seems to vary the term "story" to fit its needs...that is story in the sense of the eagle is 18 stories tall and the X-flight is 12 stories tall. There is also a claim that x-flight will be five minutes long. Either the ride has a very slow ride up to the first drop OR the track will need to be extremely long (which does not fit the available foot print). Regardless, the wait will be in the hours not minutes.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Six Flags now plans to open a major attraction in every one of its parks every season. We shall see.
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Re: X-Flight coaster coming in 2012

Post by ttd rox »

^Another large attraction for SFGAm in 2013 wouldn't surprise me. It will most likely be a thrilling flat ride. Of course, if they take out the amphitheater in Yukon, that will give them plenty of room for a mid size coaster in Wolf's old spot.

I'll give my thoughts on X-Flight. I personally love it. It's something different and very special to the park. In my opinion this will be the best addition since Raging Bull and better than V2. It might not be the most forceful ride, but hopefully it packs a load of "hang time".
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Re: X-Flight coaster coming in 2012

Post by jimmy gimbels »

SFGA still claims the X-flight will be the first coaster of its type. Umm, Dollywood is building the same coaster. And will open first.
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Re: X-Flight coaster coming in 2012

Post by dlmtechnology »

FParker185 wrote:Great American Raceway had it's last season in 2010. The track was mostly torn up in the off season and of course has been closed all year this year. The cars were dispersed around the chain.
That may be, but after today's visit, the cars are all sitting on the track that is left around by dive, two tracks FULL of cars, so they must not have been dispersed.

While the queue houses for Raceway/Splash , the RC Cars, Characiter building, and Games Building are now demolished, they still left cars on the track. If they were getting rid of them it would make for easier removal to remove them NOW while there is no dirt and mud laying around.

The following is pure speculation, but also with them leaving the Raceway Garage / Splash Computer house in tact (they repaired parts of it) and the Raceway gas tank is still in the ground, I believe them to be using that building for X-Flights computers, and possibly retracking Raceway once again (it originally was a figure 8 with 3 lanes, then it got re-configured to an oval and 2 lanes to put splash in. I've said it before, I believe another reconfiguration is in its future, outlining the course of X-Flight (I could see it being down to 1 lane, in my two years running the ride we only ran track 2 for ONE DAY)
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Re: X-Flight coaster coming in 2012

Post by ttd rox »

First post of 2012 here :)

Since the line has to split, if they let you choose which side you can go to the first year, I'm definitely choosing the left. The reason why I say "let you choose" is because I wouldn't be surprised to see them equally distribute the two sides to keep the queue balanced the first year. Such as let 16 people go to one side and 16 go to the other so everything flows smoothly.

Also, they have added more onto the drop today. They didn't do much yesterday or Monday which makes me wonder if the added track to areas the camera isn't facing.
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Re: X-Flight coaster coming in 2012

Post by RandyV »

I have to admit -- I was pretty happy to hear about X-Flight coming to the park. While B&M is building another wing rider at Dollywood, Great America getting one of the first of this new kind of coaster really gave me a moment of nostalgia. It's great to see the park setting the trend for new coasters -- something that's been missing for a while. We had an number of coaster firsts in the 80s and 90s: The American Eagle in '81, Z-Force in '86, Shockwave in '89, Iron Wolf in '90 and Batman in '92. For the last 20 years it seems like we've had a pretty big dry spell in terms of getting something no one else has.

It's also great that X-Flight isn't an over the top coaster. It seems that the unless you build a hypercoaster as of last you're not doing anything. It's good to see a new, unique, medium sized, fun coaster get put in to the mix.

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