Coaster/Site Selection

Six Flags St. Louis has not had a major installation in years. Although a boomerang was installed in 2013 the park lacks a new well-received roller coaster necessary for bringing more popularity to the park. The park primarily does not have a large modern necessary to put the park on the map of coaster enthusiasts. The current largest steel coaster in the park is Mr. Freeze and although it is a unique ride in itself it is a rather dated installation. For these reasons, I have decided to build an launched roller coaster that emphasizes unique inversions and high speed turns. These features will exemplify the best qualities of modern steel coasters and hopefully provide the needed publicity the park is looking for.

Three things I liked about existing coasters that will be implemented when designing this coaster are emphasis on high speed turns, curving drops, and unique inversion elements such as those found on Fahrenheit (Hershey Park). I will be avoiding a top-hat element due to its commonplace in the launched roller coaster world. I will also focus on banked curves and airtime hills as I feel many steel coasters do not successfully combine these two elements as they focus more on speed and/or height and this often detracts from overall ride experience. The ride is designed specifically to incorporate these pros and cons of existing roller coasters.

The roller coaster will be built near Tidal Wave in the Illinois section of the park. This park does not contain a large population of roller coasters and there is plenty of land to the east that is undeveloped. There is also a pre-existing path that essentially dead ends in this section of the park that can easily be developed to accommodate the new coaster. It is estimated that an additional 2 million dollars will be needed to acquire a few additional acres as well as complete the necessary excavation work to prepare the site for the new ride. A map of the location of the ride can be seen in the figure below.

This image is zoomed in to the Northeastern part of Six Flags St. Louis near Tidal Wave. A more detailed visual representation of the layout can be found below.

Visual Representation

120 ft. hill

Banked Turn Roll

Banked Turn

Helix Launch

Block

Brake Run

Banked Turn

Roller Coaster Description

The roller coaster begins with a launch from 0 to 62 mph before climbing a 125 ft. hill and banking to the right into a drop. Next, the coaster travels through a Norwegian loop before going through a highly banked, high speed turn and over an airtime hill. The coaster then goes through a cobra roll before banking up and to the right into the mid-course . The then travels down an 85 ft. drop before heading into another banked turn and a 360 degree helix. The train finally goes through one more banked slower turn before traveling over one more airtime hill and banking to the right into the final brake run.

Statistics, Calculations and Estimations

Length: 4300 ft. Maximum Height: 125 ft.

Launch Speed: 0-62 mph in approximately 2 seconds Maximum Positive G-Force: 4 Maximum Negative G-Force: -0.5 Maximum Positive Lateral G-Force: 0.5 Maximum Negative Lateral G-Force: -0.2

Trains: 3 trains with 5 cars per train (20 riders per train) Estimated Cost: 18,000,000 USD

First Hill Height Calculation

Using

where Vf and Vo are equal to the initial and final velocities, respectively. Assume the initial velocity is 27.5 m/s and the final velocity is 5 m/s. Substituting into the above equation yields

Radius at the Bottom of First Drop Calculation

Using

where V is the velocity of the train at the bottom of the hill and g is the g-force experienced by riders. Note that g is 1 minus the g-force to account for the 1 G already supplied by gravity. In this case V = 27 m/s and g = 2.5. Substituting into the above equation yields:

Turning Radius and Banking Calculation (turn after midpoint brake run)

Using the same equation above and assuming a later force of 2 G’s in the turn, the radius of the turn can be calculated. In this case V = 22 m/s and g = 2.

To calculate the banking the following equation can be used:

Where l is the lateral force and p is the desired vertical force. In this case p = 2 and l = 1. Substituting these numbers into the equation above yields:

In total, the turn must have a radius of 24.7 meters (81 feet) with a bank of 63.4 degrees.

Ride Capacity Calculation

Using the equation

In this case the duration of the ride is 80 seconds and there are 3 trains that can hold a maximum of 20 riders per train. Substituting these numbers into the equation above yields a total capacity of

This number, however, is an overestimate given that not all trains are necessarily filled during each run and additional loading and dispatch times may add to the overall duration of the ride.

Cost Estimation

Using Maverick at as a reference for this roller coaster due to its very similar length, the roller coaster itself will likely cost around $16 million to build. An estimated additional $2 million will be needed to acquire the extra land and complete the necessary preparations of that land to begin coaster construction. Thus, the project will total approximately $18 million from start to finish. Note that an assumption is made that the roller coaster will cost slightly less than Maverick due to its lack of a second launch system. Length Estimation

Because the roller coaster was constructed using NoLimits Roller Coaster Simulator, the coaster length was obtained using simulation statistics. The total length was determined to be 4304.17 feet or approximately 4300 feet.