Kong is an

inverted roller coaster An inverted roller coaster is a type of steel roller coaster in which the train runs under the track with the seats directly attached to the wheel carriage. Riders are seated in open cars, letting their feet swing freely. The inverted coaster wa ...

located at

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (formerly known as Six Flags Marine World, Marine World, The New Marine World Theme Park, and Marine World Africa USA) is a 135-acre (55 ha) animal theme park located in Vallejo, California, off of Interstate 80 i ...

amusement park in

Vallejo, California Vallejo ( ; ) is a city in Solano County, California, United States, and the second largest city in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area. Located on the shores of San Pablo Bay, the ci ...

. The

Suspended Looping Coaster The Suspended Looping Coaster (or SLC) is a model of steel roller coaster, steel inverted roller coaster, inverted roller coaster built by Dutch manufacturer Vekoma. There are at least 39 different installations across the world. The minimum ride ...

(SLC) model was manufactured 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 ...

and first opened to the public as Hangman at

Opryland USA Opryland USA (later called Opryland Themepark and colloquially known as Opryland) was a amusement park, theme park in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. The park was located between the Cumberland River and Tennessee State Route 155, Briley Pa ...

on May 1, 1995. Following Opryland's closure in 1997, the roller coaster was sold to Premier Parks and moved to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, where it reopened as Kong in May 1998.

History

Opryland USA

''Kong'' was previously located at the now-defunct

theme park in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

where it was known as ''The Hangman''. The ride was officially announced on October 8, 1994. Opened on May 1, 1995, it was notably the last major attraction to be added to Opryland before the park closed at the end of the 1997 season. The Hangman was located in the American West area of the park, in an area formerly occupied by the Tin Lizzies antique car ride. Upon Opryland's closure, The Hangman was disassembled and sold to Premier Parks. Soon afterwards, it was relocated and rebuilt at

as ''Kong'' after Premier Parks acquired the

Six Flags Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is an American amusement park company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It was formed on July 2, 2024, following a merger between longtime rivals Cedar Fair and the former Six Flags ...

chain.

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

Kong debuted as the first coaster at The New Marine World Theme Park (later Six Flags Discovery Kingdom) on Memorial Day Weekend of 1998. At that time Kong became the tallest and longest

in Northern California, missing the speed record by and achieving the length record by only . Today, The Flash: Vertical Velocity and

Medusa In Greek mythology, Medusa (; ), also called Gorgo () or the Gorgon, was one of the three Gorgons. Medusa is generally described as a woman with living snakes in place of hair; her appearance was so hideous that anyone who looked upon her wa ...

, hold the height and speed records in Discovery Kingdom and Northern California. Kong's entrance was previously loaded near the iWerks theater (Also known as the "Dino Sphere"). In 2007, the park moved the attraction's entrance to Oasis Plaza. Guests now walk under the ride to get to the loading platform. During Fright Fest 2016, Kong was given a

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 ...

(VR) upgrade. The experience would be called Rage of the Gargoyles. Riders had the option to 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, powered by Oculus to create a 360-degree, 3D experience while riding. The illusion was themed to a fighter jet, where riders flew through a futuristic city as co-pilots battling demonic creatures. On February 8, 2017, Six Flags announced that Kong would offer a new VR experience known as The New Revolution Galactic Attack. It was billed as the world's first mixed Virtual Reality Experience powered by Oculus VR. The experience was centered around an alien invasion in space. 2021-Present Six Flags Discovery Kingdom removes the orange train on Kong reducing the hourly capacity to 460 rph. While riding the coaster, you can see the plastic pieces of the orange train under and around the transfer track.

Ride experience

Kong starts with a lift hill. Followed by that is a drop, a rollover, sidewinder, turn and back to back inline twists, before slamming to a stop, or trimming into the brakes.

References

External links

The Hangman at RCDBSix Flags webpage
{{Authority control Roller coasters operated by Six Flags Roller coasters introduced in 1998 Six Flags Discovery Kingdom