Flashy coaster draws eyes, prize
A roller-coaster innovation introduced by Skyline Attractions, an Orlando-based ride design and manufacturing firm, is putting sparks in the eyes of enthusiasts.
The Kid Flash Cosmic Coaster, which debuted at Six Flags Over Georgia and Six Flags Fiesta Texas theme parks last month, uses video panels that line the rails and light the ride vehicles’ paths with bright, electrifying graphics that travel alongside the trains.
The rides are a variation of the dueling coasters model of Skyline’s P’Sghetti Bowl rides. The pulsating screens are themed to go with Kid Flash, a speedy DC Comics character.
“The profiles of these two little roller coasters are really beautiful and pretty, especially to a connoisseur,” said Chris Gray, Skyline vice president. “When you put lights on these things, and you have moving lights running on this thing, it is literally a visual Pied Piper. It just draws you to it.”
The panels, attached along the sides and top of the rails, are basically the same as used for outdoor signs, Gray said. Their visuals can be programmed for different purposes such as holidays or paid sponsorships.
“We’ve had lots of discussions with Six Flags and other parks as well about how could you monetize that,” Gray said. “You know, you have it for one hour for a certain amount of money, and you can type in ‘Happy birthday, my baby girl.’ ”
The genesis of the look emerged from a tabletop coaster model made by a Skyline engineer, who used light to simulate the motion of a ride. It was a lightbulb moment, one that prompted a quick rigging up of a piece of full-sized track with screen to show off at IAAPA Expo at the Orange County Convention Center in 2022.
“That light package was one of the things that sold the concept to Six Flags,” Gray said.
The LED lighting package,
called Aurora, is effective during the day and night, he said, and the atmosphere is amped after rain, when puddles provide more reflection.
“When you stand in the middle of that, it almost encompasses your entire field of vision with moving lights. So it’s almost like being in a motion theater, except everything’s going in different directions,” Gray said.
The lighting scheme is effective for riders and folks who just want to watch, said Chris Kraftchick, a member of the operations committee for American Coaster Enthusiasts.
“I feel that if you can sort of add some visual effects to a coaster, it just really enhances it,” he said. “It really just makes it artistic.” He points to the lit canopy of Magic Kingdom’s Tron: Lightcycle / Run and the lighting package on Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit at Universal’s Islands of Adventure as local examples.
Skyline’s line of P’Sghetti (pronounced like a toddler tries to say “spaghetti”) coasters accommodates young riders. The height requirement for the Kid Flash coasters is 36 inches. They have no inversions, but the two trains have 12 crossover moments on the intertwined rails.
“That visual dance is really fun,” Gray said.
At this year’s IAAPA Expo, the P’Sghetti Bowl coaster received a Brass Ring Award in the category of best new product under $3 million from the trade group.
The footprint of these coasters is compact. The one in Texas sits where a bumper-car attraction was, Gray said. He estimated it’s the equivalent to the space needed for two carousels. Kid Flash coasters have more than 1,000 feet of intertwined track in that space.
Attractions that aren’t space hogs work well in the burgeoning family-entertainment center sector.
“There are hundreds and hundreds of these FECs dotting the United States,” Kraftchick said. This size of coaster is good for their space and budget restraints, he said.
“Your capital investment isn’t going to bankrupt you,” he said.
But small can work for big parks, too, Gray said.
“Some of these older parks, they probably are getting to the point where they’re running out of space. You’ve got to get creative,” he said. In recent years, Islands of Adventure added Jurassic World VelociCoaster and SeaWorld Orlando installed Ice Breaker on strips of land along waterfronts.
Companies have become more cautious with their spending in recent years, Gray said.
“If you look at what parks are doing now, they’re typically not spending gazillions and gazillions of dollars for some gigantic roller coaster,” he said. “Years ago, every other year or so a park got a gigantic roller coaster for $5 million to $12 million at a time,” he said.