Custom Looping Coaster

Custom Looping Coaster

Status	Discontinued
First built	Corkscrew (1976)
Last built	Tennessee Tornado (1999)
Statistics
Manufacturer	Arrow Dynamics, USA
Type	Steel
Propulsion	Chain lift hill

The Custom Looping Coaster was a product offered by Arrow Dynamics. It spanned over twenty years, during which twenty-five were built. Arrow also produced two standardised layouts: the Corkscrew and the Loop & Corkscrew.

History

The corkscrew element on Corkscrew at Cedar Point

The first installation, Corkscrew at Cedar Point, opened in 1976 as the first roller coaster with three inversions. It was also Arrow's first custom inverting coaster and their first vertical loop. The same year, two installations both called Turn Of The Century opened, one at each Marriott's Great America location (now California's Great America and Six Flags Great America).

In 1977, Double Loop opened at Geauga Lake with the first back-to-back loops. The following year, Loch Ness Monster opens at Busch Gardens: The Old Country (now Busch Gardens Williamsburg) and introduced interlocking loops.

For 1980, Arrow modified their Turn of the Century roller coasters at both Marriott's locations, adding two vertical loops. As a result, their name was changed to Demon and they joined the newly-built Carolina Cyclone as the first roller coasters with four inversions. The same year, Orient Express opened with four inversions, two of which are contained within the new batwing element (referred to by Arrow as a boomerang).

Viper, which opened at Darien Lake in 1982, was the first roller coaster with five inversions. This was achieved by a vertical loop, followed by a double corkscrew and a batwing. The following year, Dragon Mountain opened at MarineLand with the only bowtie element ever built. It also took advantage of the existing terrain, remaining close to the ground throughout its 5,500 foot course. In 1984, Dragon opened at Ocean Park. Built on a hillside, it is the first roller coaster to feature a sidewinder.

An overview of the track layout of Viper at Six Flags Magic Mountain

In 1987, the record for most inversions was broken by Vortex at Kings Island. It has the same set of inversions as Viper at Darien Lake, with an extra loop at the beginning. Vortex's record-breaking status was short lived, as ShockWave opened in 1988 at Six Flags Great America with seven inversions: three loops, a batwing, and a double corkscrew. Six Flags subsequently built two clones. Great American Scream Machine opened at Six Flags Great Adventure in 1989 and Viper opened the following year, with an altered layout, at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Seven inversions would be the most on any Arrow roller coaster. The trio held on to their record until the opening of Dragon Khan, built by Bolliger & Mabillard, in 1995.

A train climbing the lift hill on Drachen Fire

Drachen Fire, opened in 1992 at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, was a departure from Arrow's seventeen years of looping roller coaster experience. Rather than incorporating vertical loops, batwings and double corkscrews, Arrow included several new elements that they had never built before, including a corkscrew during the first drop, a cutback and a cobra roll. The support structure was also a new design, similar to that used by Bolliger & Mabillard. The coaster was met with largely negative reception from guests, as it had a reputation of being rough from the start. Drachen Fire's reputation became bad enough that Busch Gardens modified the track, removing an inversion in 1995. The coaster was ultimately closed in 1998 and demolished four years later.

Arrow returned to their older designs the following year for Fantasia Special, with the first triple corkscrew, and Canyon Blaster, located within the indoor Adventuredome theme park. By the second half of the 1990s, Arrow's projects were declining in quantity. Roller Coaster, opened in 1996, was Arrow's first Custom Looping Coaster to use their refined track and again saw a departure from their older looping designs, with smoother transitions and a single corkscrew element. The final Custom Looping Coaster installation was Tennessee Tornado. Opened in 1999 at Dollywood, it has a 110 foot tall loop (a much larger radius than loops on previous Arrow coasters) and smoother transitions. Arrow Dynamics was purchased by S&S Power in October 2002 after filing for bankruptcy.

Design

Most Custom Looping Coasters were welded together onsite, however some later installations used bolt-up track and supports.

The majority of installations use a combination of the following inversions:

• 

  Double corkscrew on Anaconda

• 

  Vertical loop on Viper at Darien Lake

• 

  Interlocking loops on Loch Ness Monster

• 

  Batwing on Viper at Six Flags Magic Mountain

• 

  Bowtie on Dragon Mountain

Trains

The roller coaster uses trains with either six or seven cars. Each car sits four riders in two rows of two. Riders are secured by over-the-shoulder harnesses.

Installations

Name	Amusement park	Country	Inversions	Opened	Status
Corkscrew	Cedar Point	United States	3	May 15, 1976	Operating
Demon	California's Great America	United States	4 (originally 2)	May 20, 1976	Operating
Demon	Six Flags Great America	United States	4 (originally 2)	May 29, 1976	Operating
Double Loop	Geauga Lake	United States	2	1977	Closed September 16, 2007
Loch Ness Monster	Busch Gardens Williamsburg	United States	2	June 6, 1978	Operating
Corkscrew	Valleyfair	United States	3	1980	Operating
Carolina Cyclone	Carowinds	United States	4	March 22, 1980	Operating
Orient Express	Worlds of Fun	United States	4	April 4, 1980	Closed October 26, 2003
Dragon Fyre	Canada's Wonderland	Canada	4	1981	Operating
Viper	Six Flags Darien Lake	United States	5	May 29, 1982	Operating
Dragon Mountain	MarineLand	Canada	4	1983	Operating
Dragon	Ocean Park	China	3	1984	Closed 2021
Vortex	Kings Island	United States	6	April 11, 1987	Closed October 27, 2019
Rolling X-Train	Everland	South Korea	4	1988	Operating
ShockWave	Six Flags Great America	United States	7	June 3, 1988	Closed 2002
Great American Scream Machine	Six Flags Great Adventure	United States	7	April 15, 1989	Closed July 18, 2010
Viper	Six Flags Magic Mountain	United States	7	April 7, 1990	Operating
Anaconda	Kings Dominion	United States	4	March 23, 1991	Operating
Steel Phantom	Kennywood	United States	4	May 10 1991	Closed September 4, 2000
Drachen Fire	Busch Gardens Williamsburg	United States	5 (originally 6)	April 4, 1992	Closed July 1998
Fantasia Special	Tongdo Fantasia	Japan	5	1993	Operating
Canyon Blaster	Adventuredome	United States	4	August 23, 1993	Operating
Gold Coaster Formerly Big Dipper	Dreamworld Luna Park	Australia Australia	2	December 26, 2001 1995	Operating Closed January 27, 2001
Roller Coaster	Al-Sha'ab Leisure Park	Kuwait	2	1996	SBNO since July 2017
Tennessee Tornado	Dollywood	United States	3	April 17, 1999	Operating

Similar products

In 1979, the first roller coasters from Dutch company Vekoma opened in Europe. They used the same track system as Arrow looping roller coasters as well as Arrow's own trains. Vekoma continued to use the track system for many of their own models, and offered their own custom looping coasters.