Hornet (Wonderland Amusement Park)
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| Manufacturer | Vekoma | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Product | Custom MK-700 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Designer / calculations | Ing.-Büro Stengel GmbH | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Type | Steel | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Riders per train | 24 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Propulsion | Tire propelled lift | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 27.9 feet | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 1148.3 feet | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Inversions | 0 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Hornet is a steel roller coaster located at Wonderland Amusement Park in Amarillo, Texas, USA. It is a custom installation using Vekoma's MK-700 track system.
History
The ride first operated at Boblo Island in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada where it opened in 1988. Called Nightmare, the ride was enclosed and shared a building split in half with the park's dance hall.[1] It closed with the park on 30 September 1993.[2]
In 1994, the ride was sold at auction to Six Flags for $350,000 and was subsequently dismantled, being sent to Six Flags AstroWorld in Houston, Texas, USA where the ride reopened as Mayan Mindbender in 1995.[3][4] It was reconstructed within an new building designed as a faux-mayan pyramid replacing the mini golf course in the park's Oriental Village section. The ride would feature extensive theming, including themed mayan heads and a crashed jeep in a jungle environment with plants.[5]
In 2002, Mayan Mindbender's train was repainted.
In 2003, Mayan Mindbender had seatbelts installed.[6]
The ride would continue to operate until it closed with the park permanently on October 30, 2005.[7]
By January 2006, the ride was removed from the faux-mayan temple and was sold at auction to Wonderland Amusement Park and by March 2006 was subsequently transported to Amarillo, Texas.[8] Parts of the ride's mayan temple building exterior including the theming were auctioned off in February 2006 to a dive park in Clute, Texas where they were lowered underground as part of a "virtual underwater theme park".[9][10]
It sat in storage at the park from 2006 to 2007 as the park awaited land to be purchased to build the ride on.[11]
The roller coaster was eventually rebuilt at the park in 2008 and reopened on June 3, 2009 as Hornet. For the first time, it was operating outside as a outdoor coaster.[12]
Design
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Color scheme
Dark green track and white supports. The ride used to feature brown track and black supports at Six Flags AstroWorld and grey track and supports at Boblo Island.
Trains
Single train with 12 cars. In each car, riders are arranged 2 across in a single row, for a total of 24 riders per train.
Incident
In Summer 2001, a 13-year-old boy was seriously injured when he fell from Mayan Mindbender.[13]
Gallery
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The ride's logo -
A view of one of the cars
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References
- ↑ "New roller coasters springing up". Chicago Tribune. 1988-04-24. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
- ↑ "Boblo Island closed 25 years ago: Here's what it looks like now".
- ↑ "Boblo Island". Coaster Enthusiasts of Canada.
- ↑ Six Flags Houston 1995 brochure
- ↑ "Mayan Mindbender". Six Flags Houston.
- ↑ "Six Flags AstroWorld". Theme Park Timelines.
- ↑ "For AstroWorld, the ride is over".
- ↑ "Two AstroWorld steel coasters to stay in Texas". Amusement Today.
- ↑ "Six Flags Astroworld". Screamscape.
- ↑ "A dump truck passes a manufactured stone Mayan mask above a Clute, Texas, sand pit Wednesday, June 7, 2006. The mask will eventually be placed in the soon-to-be-exhausted pit, which will fill with water to be developed into a lake for the exclusive use of divers. The mask, a relic from the now defunct Astroworld amusement park, will be joined by old boats, an F-5 Navy jet and dozens of other 20th century relics in the bottom of the lake". Alamy.
- ↑ "AstroWorld's Greezed Lightnin???? What is going on with it?". Theme Park Review.
- ↑ "Welcome to the Wild, Wild West End!". NewsPlusNotes. 2009-06-01.
- ↑ Thrilled to Death - HoustonPress (Wayback Archive)
External links
- Hornet on the Roller Coaster DataBase.
- Hornet on Coaster-Count.
- Hornet on wonderlandpark.com.
- Mayan Mindbender on sixflags.com.
