Iron Dragon is a

suspended roller coaster A suspended roller coaster is a type of steel roller coaster in which the car hangs from the bottom of the rolling stock by a pivoting fulcrum or hinge assembly. This allows the car and riders to swing side to side as the train races along the t ...

located at

Cedar Point Cedar Point is a amusement park located on a Lake Erie peninsula in Sandusky, Ohio, United States, owned and operated by Six Flags. It opened in 1870 and is considered the second-oldest operating amusement park in the US behind Lake Compounc ...

Sandusky, Ohio Sandusky ( ) is a city in Erie County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Situated on the southern shore of Lake Erie, Sandusky is located roughly midway between Toledo, Ohio, Toledo ( west) and Cleveland ( east). At the 2020 United Stat ...

. Built in 1987 by

Arrow Dynamics Arrow Dynamics was an American manufacturing and engineering company that specialized in designing and building amusement park rides, especially roller coasters. Based in Clearfield, Utah, the company was the successor to Arrow Development (19 ...

, it is located in the Millennium Midway section of the park.

History

Before Iron Dragon's 1987 debut, the Western Cruise (later known as Paddlewheel Excursions) boats circumnavigated the waters around this island. The popular boat ride's station sat on the same part of the midway where Iron Dragon's station rests today. (Riders can still spot the docking cleats welded to the dock while climbing the stairs to the boarding station.) The Monster circular ride used to call the land under Iron Dragon's transfer track home. Monster closed on Labor Day weekend in 1986 so ''Iron Dragon'' construction could begin. Planning for Iron Dragon began in 1985, the same year the Frontier Lift cable car ride (similar to the Sky Ride found on Cedar Point's main midway) opened for its final season. In the early and mid-1990s, a "remote a boat" game was housed in the water under Iron Dragon's final helix element. This was removed in 1997. With the closure of

XLR-8 XLR-8 (pronounced "accelerate") was a suspended roller coaster located at the defunct Six Flags AstroWorld. Manufactured by Arrow Huss at a cost of $3.2 million, the ride opened to the public in 1984, where it operated until the park's closur ...

at Astroworld, Eagle Fortress at

Everland Everland () is South Korea's largest theme park. It is located at the Everland Resort in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. In 2018, it received 5.85 million visitors and was ranked 19th in the world for amusement park attendance. As of 2010, Everla ...

, and

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Busch Gardens Williamsburg Busch Gardens Williamsburg (formerly Busch Gardens Europe and Busch Gardens: The Old Country) is a amusement park in James City County near Williamsburg, Virginia, United States, located approximately northwest of Virginia Beach. The park w ...

, Iron Dragon became the longest operating suspended roller coaster in the world. Iron Dragon is also the oldest of the five remaining suspended coasters built by Arrow Dynamics. For the 2025 season, Iron Dragon was added to Fast Lane.

Characteristics

Iron Dragon's previous color scheme was red track with gray supports, similar paint schemes to that of

Ninja A , or was a spy and infiltrator in pre-modern Japan. The functions of a ninja included siege and infiltration, ambush, reconnaissance, espionage, deception, and later bodyguarding.Kawakami, pp. 21–22 Antecedents may have existed as ear ...

Six Flags Magic Mountain Six Flags Magic Mountain, formerly known and colloquially referred to as simply Magic Mountain, is a amusement park located in Valencia, California, northwest of downtown Los Angeles. It opened on May 29, 1971, as a development of the Newha ...

and

Vortex In fluid dynamics, a vortex (: vortices or vortexes) is a region in a fluid in which the flow revolves around an axis line, which may be straight or curved. Vortices form in stirred fluids, and may be observed in smoke rings, whirlpools in th ...

Canada's Wonderland Canada's Wonderland, formerly known as Paramount Canada's Wonderland, is a amusement park located in Vaughan, Ontario, a municipality within the Greater Toronto Area. Opened in 1981 by the Taft Broadcasting, Taft Broadcasting Company and the Gr ...

(both are also Arrow suspended swinging coasters). In 2004, the supports were repainted yellow orange.

Virtual reality

In July 2016, Cedar Point began testing the use of

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

on Iron Dragon, in which riders wear

Samsung Gear VR The Samsung Gear VR is a virtual reality headset developed by Samsung Electronics, in collaboration with Oculus VR, and manufactured by Samsung. The headset was released on August 21, 2015. When in use, a compatible Samsung Galaxy device acts as ...

headsets to experience the 3D digital effects. Availability was limited from 6 – 9 p.m, and guests were required to sign up earlier in the day. Following positive feedback, Cedar Point made the new feature permanent on June 9, 2017, but later removed it on September 8, 2018.

Ride experience

This type of roller coaster features cars that hang beneath the track by a chassis allowing them to swing side to side. Some parts of the ride are built on artificial lagoons, and the track takes riders into wooded areas and over water. Iron Dragon is one of two roller coasters at Cedar Point to utilize two separate lift hills, the other being

Cedar Creek Mine Ride Cedar Creek Mine Ride is a mine train roller coaster at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. Built by Arrow Development, the roller coaster opened in 1969 in the Frontiertown section of the park. It is the second oldest ...

. Both hills are built side by side and head in opposite directions. After departing the station, the ride turns to the right. After ascending the first lift, which travels partially underneath

Rougarou The Rougarou (, alternatively spelled as roux-ga-roux, rugaroo, or rugaru) is a legendary creature in Cajun diaspora and a tricker in oral traditions in Metis and Francophone communities linked to traditional concepts of the werewolf. Versions ...

's lift hill and first drop, the ride descends down first drop and then rises into a wide left turn. This leads into a right turn and a near-miss with Rougarou's lift hill, followed by a slight turn to the left and another turn to the right. The ride descends as it continues right and climbs upward, entering a descending 270-degree helix as it passes

Top Thrill 2 Top Thrill 2 is a launched roller coaster located at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. The ride originally opened as Top Thrill Dragster in 2003, becoming the List of roller coaster rankings, tallest and fastest roller coaster in th ...

's brake run. The train then enters a brake run and second lift hill, traveling in the opposite direction as the first. The drop off of the second lift is not very steep, with the train navigating a series of gradual curves. After passing under Top Thrill 2's back spike, the train then pulls up into a sharp right turn. The next drop curves left slightly, followed by a right-hand turn and drop into a clockwise helix over the lagoon. Water nozzles that spray mist are positioned under the pretzel-shaped helix, although these do not always run. After exiting the helix, the ride dips and rises once more, turns left and then right, before hitting the final brake run and returning to the station.

References

External links

Cedarpoint.com - Official ''Iron Dragon'' page

Official POV of Iron Dragon

at The Point Online

RCDB listing of operating suspended coasters by length

RCDB listing of Arrow suspended coasters {{Cedar Point Cedar Point Roller coasters introduced in 1987 Roller coasters operated by Six Flags Roller coasters in Ohio 1987 establishments in Ohio