Our friends at Theme Park Tourist enlisted the creative minds of five coaster experts (including our very own Nick Weisenberger) to propose five ride concepts that we may see within the next decade. The website then asked artist Matthew Zikry to bring the concepts to life.
All of the proposals are outstanding, but we of course have to highlight Nick’s awesome proposal: the cantilevered coaster.
Cantilevered Coaster Illustration © Matthew Zikry
Below is the summary of Nick’s cantilevered roller coaster concept:
For a future theme park ride, the cantilevered roller coaster (CRC) could revolutionize the industry by taking the thrill ride to the next level of unpredictability and excitement. The CRC system uses two tracks, each with a chassis on it, one above the other. A support arm is mounted to the lower chassis and runs up through a gimbaled, sliding bearing in the upper chassis. The guests ride in the themed portion of the vehicle mounted to the top of the arm above the upper track and chassis.
Watch a video of the concept in action below:
As the complete vehicle moves along the track course, the upper track and chassis serve as a kind of fulcrum for the support arm. The lower track follows a slightly different course than the upper track, and this causes the top support arm and the guests to swing in a side to side yaw movement, pitching front to back and up and down. Because the vehicle sits on the end of a level the track could be hidden from the riders creating an unpredictable ride experience.
The CRC was conceived as a way to get the ride vehicle up and away from the main track system. It’s similar to those those ride systems that employ a multi-axis simulator sitting on a tracked chassis (e.g. Indiana Jones Adventure, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey), but without all the complex hydraulics, servos, and electronics of those systems, plus the ability to move on an undulating coaster track. The CRC could be a simpler and less costly alternative to those highly complex and expensive tracked-simulator rides and thus could pop-up at parks all over the country.
Read about all of the 2020 ride concepts here.
Also, be sure to check out Nick’s new Coasters 101: An Engineer’s Guide to Roller Coaster Design book to learn what it takes to design and build a roller coaster.
What do you think theme park rides will look like in 2020? Share your ideas in the comments section below.
Recent Discussion