Revolution, formerly Irn Bru Revolution, is an

Arrow Development Arrow Development was an amusement park ride and roller coaster design and manufacturing company, incorporated in California on November 16, 1945, and based in Mountain View. It was founded by Angus "Andy" Anderson, Karl Bacon, William Hardima ...

shuttle roller coaster A shuttle roller coaster is any roller coaster that ultimately does not make a complete circuit, but rather reverses at some point throughout its course and traverses the same track backwards. These are sometimes referred to as boomerang roller c ...

Blackpool Pleasure Beach Blackpool Pleasure Beach is an amusement park situated on Blackpool's South Shore, in the county of Lancashire, North West England. It operates as a secure facility, and has introduced epayments via smartphones for admission charges, replacin ...

. It was Europe's first fully looping roller coaster. The ride consists of two raised sections of track with 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 ...

in the centre. The train is launched off the first raised platform, into the loop, and up onto the second platform, where it repeats the process in reverse. As a result of the design, riders are required to climb a series of stairs to get to the loading station. Until the introduction of Infusion, it was the park's only looping coaster. It is one of only three Arrow shuttle coasters in operation, the others being Diamond Back at

Frontier City Frontier City is a western-themed amusement park in Oklahoma City. It is owned by EPR and operated by Six Flags. The park originally opened in 1958. Frontier City is the third-oldest Six Flags park behind Six Flags New England and Six Flags Grea ...

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, an ...

, and Sidewinder at

Elitch Gardens Theme Park Elitch Gardens Theme & Water Park is an amusement park in Denver, Colorado. It is owned by Kroenke Sports & Entertainment and operated by Premier Parks, LLC. Distinctive for being located in a downtown area, it is open April through October. ...

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

History

Revolution was designed by Arrow Development with steel fabrication by Watson Steel. It opened in 1979 as the first fully looping roller coaster in Europe. It was initially painted red and white, with the Union Flag painted on the front and back. Later the ride was sponsored by

Irn-Bru Irn-Bru ( "iron brew", ) is a Scottish carbonated soft drink, often described as "Scotland's other national drink" (after whisky). Introduced in 1901, the drink is produced in Westfield, Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, by A.G. Barr of Glasgo ...

, titled "Irn Bru Revolution", and carried the Irn-Bru orange and blue colours. The sponsorship ended in 2011 and the ride then reverted to its former title. In February 2012, the park confirmed that the ride would be closed for early parts of the season in order to be painted in a new colour theme - grey and white. It received a repaint for the 2017 season.

In popular culture

The ride was featured on the BBC show ''

Jim'll Fix It ''Jim'll Fix It'' is a British television series broadcast by the BBC between May 1975 and July 1994 and was devised and presented by Jimmy Savile and produced by Roger Ordish. The show encouraged children to write in a letter to Savile with a ...

'' when a group of

Cub Scouts Cub Scouts, Cubs or Wolf Cubs are programs associated with Scouting for young children usually between 7 and 12, depending on the organization to which they belong. A participant in the program is called a Cub. A group of Cubs is called a 'P ...

ate their lunch whilst riding the roller coaster. A homage was featured on an advert for

soft drinks when a group of

goths The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Euro ...

drank Irn-Bru whilst riding, resulting in them becoming completely drenched, in 2007.

References

Blackpool Pleasure Beach Roller coasters in the United Kingdom Roller coasters introduced in 1979 1979 establishments in England {{Amusement-ride-stub