An inverted roller coaster is a

roller coaster A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides ar ...

in which the

train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives (often k ...

runs under the track with the seats directly attached to the wheel carriage. This latter attribute is what sets it apart from the older suspended coaster, which runs under the track, but ''swings'' via a pivoting bar attached to the wheel carriage. The coaster type's inverted orientation, where the passengers' legs are exposed, distinguishes it from a traditional roller coaster, where only the passengers' upper body parts, including the arms, are exposed. The inverted coaster was pioneered by the Swiss roller coaster designers

Bolliger & Mabillard Bolliger & Mabillard, officially Bolliger & Mabillard Consulting Engineers, Inc. and often abbreviated B&M, is a roller coaster design consultancy based in Monthey, Switzerland. The company was founded in 1988 by Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabil ...

in the early 1990s. The first installation came at

Six Flags Great America Six Flags Great America is a amusement park located in Gurnee, Illinois, within the northern Chicago metropolitan area. The amusement park originally opened as Marriott's Great America on May 29, 1976, as one of two theme parks built by the M ...

in 1992. Other roller coaster manufacturers followed in the footsteps of Bolliger & Mabillard and began working on their own inverted coaster designs, including

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

Intamin Intamin Amusement Rides is a design and manufacturing company in Schaan, Liechtenstein. It is best known for creating thrill rides and roller coasters worldwide. The Intamin brand name is a syllabic abbreviation for "international amusement insta ...

and other smaller companies. Intamin has few designs classified as inverted coasters, although they do install inverted coaster trains on some of their launched designs. Vekoma, on the other hand, predominantly mass-produced the same design (

Suspended Looping Coaster The Suspended Looping Coaster (or SLC, as referred to by coaster enthusiasts) is a model of steel inverted roller coaster built by Vekoma. There are at least 39 different installations across the world. The minimum rider height requirement is . ...

) with 41 identical coasters installed around the world, though Vekoma now markets a newer style of inverted coaster, the Suspended Thrill Coaster, which utilises lap-bar restraints instead of the traditional over-the-shoulder restraints. Also, in recent years, Vekoma has become the first manufacturer to install a family-friendly inverted roller coaster.

Giovanola Giovanola Frères SA was a prominent steel manufacturing company based in Monthey, Switzerland. It was known for building electrical power stations, water storage tanks, pipelines, boilers, highway bridges, submarines, ski lifts and many other st ...

also has a single inverted coaster operating, which uses the box-track design, also used by

. The inversions usually includes a

vertical loop The generic roller coaster vertical loop, where a section of track causes the riders to complete a 360 degree turn, is the most basic of roller coaster inversions. At the top of the loop, riders are completely inverted. History The vertical l ...

zero-g roll Roller coaster elements are the individual parts of roller coaster design and operation, such as a track, hill, loop, or turn. Variations in normal track movement that add thrill or excitement to the ride are often called "thrill elements". Comm ...

Immelmann loop Roller coaster elements are the individual parts of roller coaster design and operation, such as a track, hill, loop, or turn. Variations in normal track movement that add thrill or excitement to the ride are often called "thrill elements". Comm ...

, cobra roll, and a

corkscrew A corkscrew is a tool for drawing corks from wine bottles and other household bottles that may be sealed with corks. In its traditional form, a corkscrew simply consists of a pointed metallic helix (often called the "worm") attached to a hand ...

, though Vekoma SLCs almost always feature Sidewinder and in-line twist elements.

Installations

231 inverted roller coasters have been installed at various theme parks, some of which have been relocated. The following list is not exhaustive and only shows the most notable installations.

Gallery

File:Nemesis Inferno (Thorpe Park) 01.JPG, A

inverted roller coaster, Nemesis Inferno at

Thorpe Park Thorpe Park Resort, commonly known as Thorpe Park, is an amusement park located in the village of Thorpe between the towns of Chertsey and Staines-upon-Thames in Surrey, England, southwest of Central London. It is operated by Merlin Entertai ...

File:Kumali.jpg, A

built inverted coaster, Kumali at

Flamingo Land Resort Flamingo Land is a theme park, zoo, and resort located in Kirby Misperton, North Yorkshire, England. Opened in 1959, it has been owned and operated by the Gibb family since 1978. History Flamingo Land Resort was established in 1959 when a cine ...

File:NemesisAlton.JPG, A

inverted coaster,

Nemesis In ancient Greek religion, Nemesis, also called Rhamnousia or Rhamnusia ( grc, Ῥαμνουσία, Rhamnousía, the goddess of Rhamnous), was the goddess who personifies retribution, a central concept in the Greek world view. Etymology The n ...

Alton Towers Alton Towers Resort ( ) (often referred to as Alton Towers) is a theme park and resort complex in Staffordshire, England, near the village of Alton. The park is operated by Merlin Entertainments Group and incorporates a theme park, water pa ...

File:PCW-Top Gun.jpg, A

inverted coaster, Afterburn at

Carowinds Carowinds is a amusement park located adjacent to Interstate 77 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The park straddles the North Carolina-South Carolina state line, with a portion of the park located in Fort Mill, South Carolina. However, it has an o ...

File:Black mamba first drop.jpg, A

inverted coaster,

Black Mamba The black mamba (''Dendroaspis polylepis'') is a species of highly venomous snake belonging to the family Elapidae. It is native to parts of sub-Saharan Africa. First formally described by Albert Günther in 1864, it is the second-longest ...

at Phantasialand File:Rollercoaster limit heide park germany.jpg, A

inverted coaster
Limit
at

Heide Park Heide Park Resort, commonly known as Heide Park, is a theme park in Soltau, Lower Saxony, Germany. With an overall area of over 850,000 m2 (210 acres), it is the largest amusement park in Northern Germany and among the largest in the country. ...

File:DuelingDragonsCS.jpg, The only

dueling inverted coaster,

Dragon Challenge Dragon Challenge (known as Dueling Dragons from 1999 to 2010) was a pair of intertwined, inverted roller coasters in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter area of Universal Studios' Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida, United States. The r ...

Islands of Adventure Universal's Islands of Adventure (also known as Islands of Adventure or IOA), originally called Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, is a theme park located in Orlando, Florida. It opened on May 28, 1999, along with CityWalk, as part of an ...

File:Great Bear Helix.jpg, A

inverted coaster, Great Bear at

Hershey Park Hersheypark (known as Hershey Park until 1970) is a family theme park located in Hershey, Pennsylvania, about east of Harrisburg, and west of Philadelphia. The park was founded in 1906 by Milton S. Hershey as a leisure park for the employees of ...

File:Traumatizer.jpg, A former

inverted coaster
Traumatizer
at

Pleasureland Southport Southport Pleasureland is an amusement park located in Southport, Merseyside, England. The park originally operated from 1913 to 2006 as Pleasureland Theme Park under the ownership of the Blackpool Pleasure Beach company. In 2007, the park re-o ...

File:Cedar point raptor1.jpg, A

inverted coaster,

Raptor Raptor or RAPTOR may refer to: Animals The word "raptor" refers to several groups of bird-like dinosaurs which primarily capture and subdue/kill prey with their talons. * Raptor (bird) or bird of prey, a bird that primarily hunts and feeds on v ...

Cedar Point Cedar Point is a amusement park located on a Lake Erie peninsula in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. Opened in 1870, it is considered the second-oldest operating amusement park in the U.S. behind Lake Compounce. Cedar Point is owned and oper ...

File:PKI-Rugrat's Runaway Reptar.jpg, A

family inverted coaster, Flying Ace Aerial Chase at

Kings Island Kings Island is a amusement park located northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, United States. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, the park first opened in 1972 by the Taft Broadcasting Company. It was part of a larger effort to move and exp ...

File:The Flash Vertical Velocity SFGAm Front Tower.jpg, An

launched shuttle inverted coaster, The Flash: Vertical Velocity at

File:SFA-Two Face.jpg, A former

shuttle inverted coaster, Two Face: The Flip Side at

Six Flags America Six Flags America is a theme park located in the Woodmore CDP of Prince George's County, Maryland,

File:Thunderhawk06.png, A

inverted coaster,

Thunderhawk ThunderHawk is a discontinued web browser from Bitstream available for a full range of operating systems in high end (Windows mobile and Symbian browsers) and mass-market (Java browser) mobile phones and personal digital assistants. It is basical ...

while at

Geauga Lake Geauga Lake was an amusement park in Bainbridge Township, Geauga County, Ohio, Bainbridge Township and Aurora, Ohio, Aurora, Ohio. It was established in 1887, in what had been a local recreation area adjacent to Geauga Lake (lake), a lake of th ...

References

External links

Bolliger & Mabillard official siteIntamin official siteVekoma official site
{{Rollercoaster tracks Types of roller coaster Roller coasters manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard Roller coasters manufactured by Vekoma Roller coasters manufactured by Intamin

Installations

Gallery

See also

References

External links