27 replies to this topic

[HuLK]

Hey, Yeah, we get a lot of new coasters every year, a lot of them breaking records. Height, Speed, Most inversions,etc. Well, I would like some opinions. How far will roller coasters go? Will we ever run out of ideas? Or will technology be so advanced, we could do anything, like coasters with hover tracks, Hovers over the track, so no wheels or any thing? Anybody else got an idea?

[VolcanoRocks45]

Well I think that there will always be coaster ideas. There are so many inversions that have not been added to coasters yet. Technology will always stay on top. We will always have coasters dude.

[SupremeScreamer]

Thats a tough question. I read an article in popular mechanics or somthing like that and they were analyzing how much the body could withstand. In some of the parts, it seems that if we pushed it too far we would black out or somthing like that. Im not saying there will be nothing new because I am sure they will think of somthing, but its just a question how much we can handle.

[CoasterForce]

I doubt that coasters would ever go beyond the 500-ft. range unless something amazing is invented. With G-forces, the higher the drop of a coaster is, the larger the transition there needs to be to the ground. So I think that building coasters taller and taller will no longer be the major form of coaster wars.

Coasters will continue to go farther and farther with new ideas, outlasting the coaster's height, making ingenuity more prominent.

[Oneofakind0490]

Coasters will go as far as technology and physics can take them. New ideas will always be present with many things never been touched before in the coaster world.

[ChrisPS]

I don'nt think that coasters will go over 450ft becuse of some maggere gforce but I think that they will get faster and more intense.

[HuLK]

What do you think GoldenEagle? I would say I agree with the height thing, THey probably wont top 500, but who knows, but im sure were gonna see some crazy stuff in the future, stuff we probably right now, never thought possible.

[OzCatter]

We are heading to the sky. We will easily top any height but it will take time. Cal

[ChrisPS]

I think that there will be crazer coasters coming to parks all over the world look at the stormrunner coaster at hersheypark there were no rocketcoastes with inversons until now.

[Devin Olson]

This is a good topic. While it is true that there are limits that the human body cannot be taken beyond, those and financial limits are really the only two that exist, and will always exist.

We will definitely not stop at 420 feet and 120 miles per hour. Just think, if Stratosphere had received approval for their Fishook design, we would have soon had a coaster over 700 feet tall.

In fifty years, I would not be at all surprised if we've passed the 1000-foot height mark. Now, of course any coaster of that height would have a ridiculous price tag for a support structure alone. So how, you might ask, do we go about constructing a 1000-foot coaster? Just take Stratosphere's concept as a good example: we can use existing structures to build on. More and more skyscrapers are built every year, and any skyscraper built for the sole purpose of entertainment, such as the Stratosphere Tower, would be the one to invest in a coaster like this.

So that's the solution in the budget area. But what about the limits of the human body? Speed is certainly not a limit in itself. We can go literally thousands, yes thousands of miles per hour, as long as the g's don't get out of hand, just to put it in perspective.

And as for ideas - well just ask any coaster lover out there and you'll see that we'll never be at any shortage for ideas . Imagination is limitless.

[ChrisPS]

I think that you are right about new costers being blit . I think that at some point there will be a limit to how high and how fast a coaster can go. But I think that coasters will get faster and more instinse.

[nitro_ownz_u]

coasters will go as far as we'll go. as long as there are people to ride it, they'll build it. of course, sooner or later, they'll take our ideas. then we'll have some good coasters

[ChrisPS]

I think that costers will get faster and higher and peole will ride them and I think that pepole will allways think up new ideas. BC are you shore that coasters can go a 1000mph?

[Grunts Rock]

In fifty years, I would not be at all surprised if we've passed the 1000-foot height mark.

He said 1000 feet tall. 1000 mph is probably inconceivable coaster wise.

Edited by Grunts Rock, 30 January 2004 - 04:10 PM.

[Devin Olson]

As much as I would like it, I could never see coasters reaching speeds like that. But what I was pointing out is that humans can travel at thousands of miles per hour in space, etc. as long as the forces don't cross the line.

But how cool would it be for a rollercoaster to set a new land speed record one day?

[nitro_ownz_u]

yeah. i think the land speed record is like 700, so weeve got a long way to go.

[Devin Olson]

763MPH, so it's only a dream!

But with the use of maglev technology, we could get to speeds currently inconceivable since the trains would literally be hovering above the track. Just a dream though, just an insane dream...

[Greg]

763MPH, so it's only a dream!

But with the use of maglev technology, we could get to speeds currently inconceivable since the trains would literally be hovering above the track. Just a dream though, just an insane dream...

Imagine a launch going that fast lolol, peole wouldent die would they lol. If you go to the vekoma website they have a new invention coming out in like the next several years or something. Its like an elevator it brings you up on a separte track (it is suppose to reach 500 feet) then tips you and it drops down, its hard to explain. Also arrow dynamics said they were going to release a 700 foot drop coaster.

[Devin Olson]

Well, the trains would have to be enclosed at those speeds, that's pretty much for sure.

I saw the new Vekoma concept, but I didn't read that they intended to go that high. Did they actually say that they had found a buyer?

Arrow's 700-footer was the Stratosphere Tower's Fishook coaster that was shot down (Topic on it here).

[ChrisPS]

That whould be cool if a coaster could go a 1000mph it whould be a new recrord for speed on a rollercoaster That whould be cool to see a coaster go a 1000feet up in the air but whould that go rellly fast? That whould pooble be danarous becuse of how high the g fore whold go.

[Devin Olson]

I don't think that there's any way for a drop alone to provide excessive speed past a certain point, with friction and other forces taken into account. But launches, now there you go.

As for g's becoming too much with higher speeds, that's not a problem... You just have to super-size everything to go along with greater speeds, and the g's stay where they should be. You could have a 200-MPH coaster that pulls less g's than a 50-MPH ride.

[Hobodog]

Well there would be a point of excessive speed in a conventional coaster vehicle. At certain speeds a vehicle lacking a simple protection device such as a wind screen could run into problems involving wind burn and the such. There are a few other factors and inhibitors but in the end I think the size of coasters will keep increasing in the next few years.

[Pierce Radecki]

There should be a coaster... about... 550 feet tall. The trains would go about 160 MPH. The people would be inside the trains. The would be a glass covering so the wind wouldn't blow the people's skin off. There would be a huge fan in the middle though, however, to have some force.

[Devin Olson]

Yes, as I mentioned above, there will have to be a certain point where we simply can't have the wind in our face, that is if we want speeds exceedingly faster than what we have now. Which is a real tradeoff, but it will have to happen. But we can take steps to the point where trains are completely enclosed, with windshields, etc...

I was disappointed with Stratosphere's car that they were planning for their ill-fated Fishook concept though, because it would have been enclosed with speeds of only 93 / 120mph. The only reason I say only is because TTD has proven that even at 120mph, you don't need to take any drastic steps just yet.

[danktoker]

after that point where we cant take the speeds, something will come up that will be real scary, like a loop where the track twists like a heartline spin but throughout the entire loop.