Hyperion is a

steel roller coaster A steel roller coaster is a type of roller coaster classified by its steel Railway track, track, which consists of long steel tubes that are run in pairs, supported by larger steel columns or beams. Trains running along the track typically rely ...

located at

Energylandia Energylandia is an amusement park located in Zator, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Zator, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Lesser Poland, in southern Poland. It is approximately away from Kraków and away from Warsaw, Poland's capital city. Energylandi ...

in Zator, Poland. The ride was manufactured by Swiss manufacturer

Intamin Intamin Amusement Rides is a design and manufacturing company in Schaan, Liechtenstein, best-known for designing and constructing Amusement ride, thrill rides and roller coasters at dozens of international theme parks, amusement parks and other e ...

and opened on 14 July 2018. It is themed to a fictional mission to

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...

's moon Hyperion and reaches a height of , has a maximum speed of , and features several hills and banked turns. , Hyperion is the tallest, fastest, and longest roller coaster in Poland as well as the tallest roller coaster with an inversion.

History

In October 2016, Energylandia posted two concepts for a new mega coaster on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

. One of these concepts was from Dutch manufacturer

Vekoma Vekoma Rides Manufacturing is an amusement ride manufacturer. Vekoma is a syllabic abbreviation of Veld Koning Machinefabriek (Veld Koning Machine Factory) which was established in 1926 by Hendrik op het Veld. History The company originally manu ...

; the other was from Swiss manufacturer

. The park asked the public to vote on which of the two roller coasters they would like to see built for the 2018 season. The following month, it was announced that Intamin would be the manufacturer of the new roller coaster. Construction on the new ride began in October 2017. That same month, Energylandia announced that the ride would be named Hyperion. The first pieces of track arrived at the park on 13 December 2017 and the first track piece was installed on 24 December. On 29 December, Energylandia released a short trailer for the ride on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. The lift hill was topped off on 28 April 2018 and the last piece of track was installed on 28 May. Pull-through clearance testing began on 12 June and the first full test run was completed on 28 June. Hyperion opened on 14 July 2018. Approximately 100 people were involved in Hyperion's construction. The concrete used for the ride's foundations was provided by 50 concrete mixers from a nearby facility. Several excavators and two cranes were also used during the ride's construction.

Ride experience

Immediately upon leaving the station, the

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

begins to ascend the 77-metre (253 ft)

lift hill A lift hill, or chain hill, is an upward-sloping section of track on a roller coaster on which the roller coaster train is mechanically lifted to an elevated point or peak in the track. Upon reaching the peak, the train is then propelled from t ...

. After reaching the top of the lift hill, the train drops at an angle of 85 degrees into a

tunnel A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...

, reaching a speed of 142 kilometres per hour (88 mph). The train then exits the tunnel and travels over a large hill. Following this hill, the train enters an inversion that consists of a large turnaround similar to a dive drop. The train then banks to the left at high speed before travelling over a small hill. This hill is immediately followed by a much larger hill. The train then travels through a large overbanked turn to the left, passing underneath the lift hill structure. This turn is followed by a series of small hills and banked turns before the final

brake run A brake run on a roller coaster is any section of track that utilizes some form of brakes to slow or stop a roller coaster train. There are various types of braking methods employed on roller coasters, including friction brakes, skid brakes, a ...

. There is a water feature consisting of

fountains A fountain, from the Latin "fons" ( genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were o ...

on either side of the track immediately before the final brake run.

Characteristics

Track

The steel track of Hyperion is in length and the lift hill is tall. The track and supports are painted black. The ride features one inversion, a tunnel, hills, banked turns, and a water feature.

Trains

Hyperion uses two trains coloured blue, white, and black. Each train has seven cars, with each car seating four riders in a single row; this allows a capacity of 28 riders per train. Riders are restrained by an over-the-shoulder lap bar. The two inner seats in each row are positioned slightly higher than the two outer seats. The ride can accommodate a maximum of 1,300 riders per hour.

Theme

Hyperion is themed to a research mission to Saturn's moon Hyperion. According to the ride's theme story, the spacecraft encounters a

black hole A black hole is a massive, compact astronomical object so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. Th ...

during the mission and is transported through a space-time vortex to another universe, where it discovers a twin of planet Earth. Guests in the queue can view video screens that tell the ride's theme story.

Reception

Hyperion has generally been well received. Sven Popelier of ''Coaster Kings'' praised the ride's intensity and air time, but he also noted that the seats in the back of the train did not give as smooth a ride as in the front of the train. Hyperion received the ''European Top New Attraction'' award at the ''Parksmania Awards 2018''.

Incidents

On 16 August 2018, a park employee was fatally injured when he was hit by one of Hyperion's trains. It is believed that the employee was searching for a phone that was lost by a guest when he was struck by the ride.

References

External links

Official page (in Polish and English)

at the Roller Coaster DataBase
Hyperion
at Coaster-Net {{Energylandia Roller coasters introduced in 2018 2018 establishments in Poland Roller coasters in Poland