A roller coaster with a hydraulic launch propels trains to high speeds using fluids under a high pressure.
History[edit]
The first installation with a hydraulic launch was Xcelerator at Knott's Berry Farm, built by Intamin. Subsequently, Vekoma introduced their motorbike roller coaster, which was powered by a hydraulic pump.
The tallest and fastest roller coasters (Kingda Ka and Formula Rossa, respectively) use a hydraulic system. Top speeds of hydraulically launched roller coasters range from 45 mph to 150 mph.
Hydraulically launched roller coasters have suffered from extended downtime due to maintenance issues with the launch system. As a result, the technology has fallen out of fashion, with Intamin favoring LSM powered roller coasters instead.
| Roller coaster descriptions | |||||||||
| Basic elements | Brake run • Station | ||||||||
| Advanced elements | Bunny hill • Headchopper • Inversions • Pre-Drop • Tunnel | ||||||||
| Propulsion | Lift hill (Cable lift • Chain lift • Elevator lift • Ferris wheel lift)
Powered launch (Cable launch • Counterweight • Friction Wheels • Flywheel • Hydraulic • LIM • LSM) | ||||||||
| Technology | Block brakes • On-ride camera • On-ride soundtrack • Train • car • Track • Transfer track • Underfriction • Wheel assembly | ||||||||
| Other | POV • Queue line • Rollback • Theming | ||||||||
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