![]() Simply by heading over to the amusement park, they too will be able to experience the equivalent of eight seconds in outer space-which, Rogers says, “will feel like forever. ![]() But if someone were to write a check today, Rogers says, his company could be sending riders on weightless journeys by the end of 2013-and the new owners could make money on the side by renting the coaster after hours to scientists who wanted to perform the tests they now run using NASA’s original Vomit Comet. Roller coasters typically cost no more than $30 million, but Bob Rogers, BRC’s founder and chief creative officer, says the zero-gravity ride would cost $50 million or more, in large part because the precision-response propulsion system is so complex. Re-dubbed Superman: Escape from Krypton, the retooled ride adds trains that run backward instead of forward, as they have since the 20-million, magnetic-launch shuttle coaster opened in 1997. To create that illusion, a linear induction motor system would speed coasters up the track with unprecedented precision. As the coaster approached a top speed of more than 100 mph, it would suddenly and ever so slightly decelerate-just enough to throw the passengers up from their seats, like stones from a catapult-and then quickly adjust its speed to fly in formation with and around the passengers. (The ride’s calculations would correspond to the unique heft of any particular group.) As the coaster reached the top of the track and began to drop back down, the computer system would continue to match its speed to that of the falling passengers, extending the sensation of weightlessness for several additional seconds, and finally rapidly decelerate to a stop back at the base station. But unlike Superman and other open-car coasters, the vomit-comet ride would be fully enclosed. Rather than the thrill of hurtling forward to one’s perceived doom, riders would enjoy the illusion of floating within a stable chamber. BRC’s proposed theme-park ride would travel a somewhat simpler trajectory-up and then back down a soaring steel edifice, similar to the existing “Superman: Escape from Krypton” coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California. The KC-135A aircraft flies a looping parabolic path, creating about 25 seconds of microgravity each time it zips up and over the parabola’s camelback hump. BRC Imagination Arts, a Southern California design firm, has proposed something entirely new: a ride that creates the sensation of zero gravity for up to eight seconds at a time.īRC drew its concept from the “Vomit Comet,” the plane NASA uses to train astronauts. Though thrilling, these are phenomena of degree, not kind. ![]() Ferrari World’s Formula Rossa, the fastest, literally takes riders’ breath away at speeds of up to 150 mph. Kingda Ka, the tallest roller coaster on Earth, drops its passengers a life-flashing 418 feet. ![]()
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