As first reported by Arthur Levine for USA Today, in 2018, Six Flags Fiesta Texas is opening one of the first Rocky Mountain Construction “Raptor” coasters; Wonder Woman Golden Lasso.
It will be the world’s first single-rail coaster. The trains, which seat 8 riders in single file-style seating, will travel along the 15.5-inch-wide steel track. And when riders look to either side, they won’t see any track either. The single rail, will be underneath the train. If passengers lean over the cars, they’ll see straight down to the ground.
“I expect it to be crazy smooth,” Larry Chickola, Six Flags VP and chief corporate engineer, told USA Today. “And crazy fun. There will be extremely quick twists and turns – quicker and smoother than regular coasters.”
Wonder Woman Golden Lasso will climb a 113-foot hill, feature a 100′ tall 90-degree drop, and reach speeds of 52 mph. It will include overbanked turns and several airtime moments. Among its three inversions will be a 180-degree stall; a signature RMC element. The coaster’s queue will include a crashed airplane, Greco-Greek architecture, and other references to the comic book world of Wonder Woman.
The coaster will be “visually stunning,” Jeffrey Siebert, president of Six Flags Fiesta Texas told Levine. It will be set against the multi-hued quarry wall that surrounds the park. Visitors may be surprised when they first encounter the ride. “It’s just going to look wrong, but in a nice way,” Siebert adds. The ultra-thin track won’t require as many supports as a typical steel coaster. Chickola says it will look like a thin ribbon of track suspended in the sky.
The RMC Raptor track has been in development for several years since being unveiled at the IAAPA Expo in 2015. The coaster construction company has been teasing the development and testing of Raptor track on their Facebook page in recent weeks.
According to Levine, the coaster will feature three trains, and based on the video above, will have a theoretical hourly capacity of 600 riders/hour.
Wonder Woman Golden Lasso joins projects at Kings Dominion and Cedar Point as 2018 Rocky Mountain Construction coasters in the United States. Could there be more on the horizon?
We’ll update this post with more information when we have it.
Are you planning your 2018 trip to Six Flags Fiesta Texas yet? Let us know in the comments below!
(All images via USA Today/Six Flags. Information from USA Today was used in this report.)
I am asking to go to Six Flags Fiesta Texas for a birthday present now!
Does anyone else find it interesting that this was somehow announced before the Six Flags announcement day? Just wondrin’
@Anthony
SFFT Raptor leaked and was about to go public. They got out infront of it as they wanted to hype the 1st on their own and not have the announcement Aug 31st when it had leaked for a month. Do you realy go to USA Today to reveal with an exclusive interview a new coaster? Not really unless somebody leaked info to USA Today and then you tell them we will give you an an exclusive to hold off and let us do the reveal.