A hypercoaster is a roller coaster with a height or drop measuring at least 200 feet. The term was first coined by Arrow Dynamics and Cedar Point in 1989 with the opening of the world's first hypercoaster, Magnum XL-200, which features a height of 205 ft. The next hypercoaster, Pepsi Max Big One, opened five years later at Blackpool Pleasure Beach featuring a height of 213 ft. Other roller coaster manufacturers may or may not recognize the term hypercoaster when naming their models. Intamin calls their hypercoaster model a Mega Coaster, and Bolliger & Mabillard labels theirs a Hyper Coaster. The competition between amusement parks to build increasingly taller roller coasters eventually led to the next height classification for roller coasters known as giga coasters, which have a height or drop measuring at least 300 feet. This was soon followed by the world's first strata coasters – exceeding 400 feet – with the release of Top Thrill Dragster in 2003.

History

The world's first hypercoaster was Magnum XL-200 at Cedar Point, which cost $8 million to construct. Cedar Point hired Arrow Dynamics for the design and construction began in 1988. Since its debut on May 6, 1989, Magnum XL-200 has accommodated over 36 million riders. Cedar Point's official blog states that after building the ride, "...discussion was focused on just what a roller coaster such as Magnum should be called. After all, it had no loops like most of the other large steel coasters of the time and was so much bigger and faster than its non-looping brethren. After a couple of years, the name everyone agreed upon was hypercoaster."

Description

Hypercoasters were originally built for speed and airtime, to counter the trend of constructing bigger and bigger looping coasters. To accomplish this the elements of a hypercoaster often include a large first drop, several additional drops of declining height, a large turn or helix, and then many airtime-inducing hills. Hypercoasters are commonly designed with an out and back layout, although there are occasionally hypercoasters that use a twister layout, such as Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America, and others that combine both, such as Diamondback at Kings Island. Hypercoasters are highly-ranked in the annual Amusement Today Golden Ticket Awards. In 2006, Six Flags New England's Superman: Ride of Steel (later named Bizarro and Superman The Ride) was ranked first place. Others such as Magnum XL-200 (third), Nitro (fourth), and Apollo's Chariot (fifth) followed closely behind in the top five, with hypercoasters making up the majority of the Top 10 Steel Coasters. By 2010, hypercoasters completely filled the top 10, as well as 16 of the top 20. Hypercoasters were first manufactured by Arrow Dynamics in the late 1980s to early 1990s. Since then, a number of companies, including Bolliger & Mabillard, Intamin, D. H. Morgan Manufacturing, and Giovanola have designed and constructed hypercoasters. Though hypercoasters are typically steel roller coasters, Son of Beast at Kings Island was the first and only wooden hypercoaster. Due to a number of issues, the ride was eventually demolished in 2012. In 2018, Cedar Point opened the first hybrid hypercoaster, Steel Vengeance. Steel Vengeance is the first hypercoaster manufactured by Rocky Mountain Construction.

Bolliger & Mabillard

Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) has produced 18 models over 21 years of production of hyper coasters, making it one of the more successful models manufactured by the company. The first installation of the hyper coaster was Apollo's Chariot located in Busch Gardens Williamsburg. It was one of the two models released in 1999, the other being the Floorless Coaster. It was made in a similar style to the TOGO, D. H. Morgan Manufacturing, and Arrow Dynamics hypercoasters. In 2012, B&M produced its first giga coaster, Leviathan at Canada's Wonderland, exceeding 300 feet in height. Bolliger & Mabillard do not use the term giga, but have continued to produce roller coasters in this class. The typical design of B&M's hyper coaster model includes a large lift hill then a large drop with a steep angle of descent, and typically includes airtime hills. One exception, Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America does not have this standard "out-and-back" layout, but rather features a "twister" layout. The trains feature seven to nine cars of one row with four seats, resulting in each train seating 28 to 36 riders. Depending on the dispatch time and the number of trains, the coasters typically have a capacity of 1,200 to 1,500 riders per hour. Each seat features a unique clamshell restraint. Some trains used on B&M Hyper Coasters feature staggered seats, where the two outer seats are located farther back than the two center seats, creating a more open experience. Currently, this staggered seating arrangement is only featured on four coasters: Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland, Diamondback at Kings Island, Thunder Striker at Carowinds, and Shambhala at PortAventura Park.

Golden Ticket Awards

The B&M Hyper Coaster has been the most successful model in the Golden Ticket Awards.

List of hypercoasters

The following is a list of roller coasters with a height of at least 200 ft. Shuttle roller coasters are typically not classified as hypercoasters and are therefore listed separately.

Complete circuit

Shuttle

Gallery

B&M

Other manufacturers