A Suspended Family Coaster is a

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

inverted

roller coaster A roller coaster is a type of list of amusement rides, amusement ride employing a form of elevated Railway track, railroad track that carries passengers on a roller coaster train, train through tight turns, steep slopes, and other elements, usua ...

built by

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 ...

designed for families with no inversions. Just like all inverted roller coasters the train 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 swinging coaster, which runs under the track, but "swings" via a pivoting bar attached to the wheel carriage.

History

The Suspended Family Coaster debuted in 2001 with the Rugrats Runaway Reptar opening at

Kings Island Kings Island is a amusement park northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, United States. Owned and operated by Six Flags, the park was built by Taft Broadcasting and opened in 1972. It was part of a larger effort to move and expand Coney Islan ...

in Ohio, USA, and Silver Streak at sister park

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 ...

.Wonderland has 4 new thrills

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

, Jim Fox, 5 May 2001 Several clones and variations have opened since. The original designs featured trains with a safety system consisting of over-the-shoulder restraints. These restraints would lock into place with a belt-type connector which would be attached the seat base. All of the original track designs were of the 342m model with concrete footers. In March 2007, Vekoma debuted a new version of the Suspended Family Coaster, the 294 m model. The first installation of this was Jimmy Neutron's Atomic Flyer at

Movie Park Germany Movie Park Germany is a theme park in Bottrop-Kirchhellen in western Germany, north of Düsseldorf, with an area of . It consists of 7 areas based on movies and TV series. Nearby the park are several film studios. History The park originall ...

. The ride differs from previous Suspended Family Coasters because it has a portable base-frame beneath the track rather than concrete footers and features a new train style with fully padded seats that use lap bar restraints. One month later in April 2007, the 395 m model was launched at

Gröna Lund Gröna Lund (, ), or colloquially ''Grönan'' (), is an amusement park in Stockholm, Sweden. Located on the seaward side of Djurgården Island, it is relatively small compared to other amusement parks, mainly because of its central location, which ...

in Sweden. The ride, which was named Kvasten, features the same redesigned trains as Jimmy Neutron's Atomic Flyer. The ride also features a larger layout with a peak height of and a length of .

Models

All models have one

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 ...

, which has 10 cars with 2 seats on each car. This caters for up to 650 riders per hour. All of the models feature

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 ...

s powered by tires and magnetic

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 ...

s. * 294 m — features a compact footprint where riders rise to before completing a 48-second ride of turns and drops. * 342 m — riders are taken up and go through a tight helix, followed by a series of small turns and drops for a one-and-a-half-minute ride. * 395 m — This model stands above the ground and reaches speeds of up to .

Installations

Gallery

File:Runaway Reptar Roller Coaster.jpg, Kenny's Forest Flyer at Dreamworld is a standard model. File:Vekoma-otsr.jpg, A car from Swamp Thing at Wild Adventures. File:The bat coaster train Lagoon utah.JPG, Roller coaster train for the Bat at the Lagoon Amusement Park. File:Kvasten at Gröna Lund 2007.JPG, Kvasten at Gröna Lund is the first 395m model in operation.

References

External links

Official website
{{Vekoma Mass-produced roller coasters Vekoma