Superman: Ultimate Flight

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Superman: Ultimate Flight
Pretzel loop element at Six Flags Over Georgia
Location	1: Six Flags Over Georgia 2: Six Flags Great Adventure 3: Six Flags Great America
Type	Steel - Flying
Status	Open
Opened	1: April 6, 2002 2: April 17, 2003 3: May 3, 2003
Manufacturer	Bolliger & Mabillard
Model	Flying Coaster
Lift/launch system	Chain lift hill
Height	115 feet (35.1 m)
Drop	100 feet (30.5 m)
Length	1 & 2: 2,759 feet (840.9 m) 3: 2,798 feet (852.8 m)
Max speed	51 mph[1]
Inversions	2
Duration	1: 2:00 2: 2:06 3: 3:00
Capacity	1200 riders per hour
Max G force	3Gs
Amusement Parks Portal

Superman: Ultimate Flight is a steel flying roller coaster manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard. Themed to the popular comic book character, Superman: Ultimate Flight has been installed at three Six Flags theme parks around the United States.

Locations

Superman: Ultimate Flight was first installed at Six Flags Over Georgia for the 2002 season. It opened less than a month after the first Bolliger & Mabillard flying roller coaster, Air at Alton Towers in the United Kingdom. The ride's signature element is its 78-foot-tall pretzel loop, the first roller coaster in the world to use one. Six Flags ordered two more versions of the attraction for the 2003 season. One version was installed at Six Flags Great America, and the other was installed at Six Flags Great Adventure.

The 2003 versions differ slightly from the original in Georgia. The Georgia version features a dual-platform loading station, permitting three trains to be in use at one time. Each train has seven cars, with each car carrying four riders side-by-side in a single row. The newer versions used a more standard single-platform loading station; while only allowing a maximum of two trains in operation, each train had one additional row for a total of eight rows per train.

Track layout

Superman: Ultimate Flight begins as the train turns to the right and begins to climb the 106-foot-tall lift hill. After cresting the top of the lift hill, the train drops down to the right and prepares to enter the pretzel loop. For the pretzel loop, the train swoops up, then dives down to the ground head-first. At the bottom of the loop, the riders are facing up towards the sky, where the on-ride camera photographs them. The train climbs back to the top of the element, then enters a 270-degree turn to the left, dropping back through the pretzel loop.

Next, the train passes through two consecutive horseshoe turns, first to the right and then to the left. As the train exits the second horseshoe, it swoops down and begins a 270-degree helix to the right, which leads into the ride's second inversion, an inline twist. After completing the twist, the train reaches the brake run and a final right-hand turn to return to the station.

Additional versions

Crystal Wings, a flying roller coaster at the Happy Valley amusement park in Beijing, China, uses the same design as Superman: Ultimate Flight.

Image gallery

The raising and locking of the seats from the load/unload position to the flying position

Superman's pretzel loop

One of Superman's "horseshoe turns" after the pretzel loop

References

External links

• Superman: Ultimate Flight's Official Page from Six Flags Over Georgia
• Superman: Ultimate Flight's Official Page from Six Flags Great Adventure
• Superman: Ultimate Flight's Official Page from Six Flags Great America