Flight of Fear (Kings Dominion)

This article is about a roller coaster at Kings Dominion. For Flight of Fear at Kings Island, see Flight of Fear (Kings Island).

Flight of Fear
Entrance to the attraction.
Location	Kings Dominion
Park section	Congo
Coordinates	37°50′20.3″N 77°26′21.3″W
Status	Operating
Opened	1996
Type	Steel - Launched - Enclosed
Manufacturer	Premier Rides
Designer	Werner Stengel
Model	LIM Catapult
Lift/launch system	LIM Launch
Height	74 ft (23 m)
Length	2,705 ft (824 m)
Max speed	54 mph (87 km/h)
Inversions	4
Duration	2:24
Capacity	1200 riders per hour
Max G force	4.5
Height restriction	4 ft 6 in (137 cm)
Flight of Fear at RCDB
Pictures of Flight of Fear at RCDB
Amusement Parks Portal

Flight of Fear is an enclosed launched roller coaster located at Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia. It is one of two roller coasters named Flight of Fear; the two rides are clones of each other, and the other Flight of Fear is located at Kings Island. Both Flight of Fear roller coasters first opened in 1996 and were the world's first roller coasters to feature a linear induction motor launch. Flight of Fear has won three awards from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, including one for Major Theme/Amusement Park Ride/Attraction and two for Technology Applied to Amusements.

For most of the 2006 season, the Flight of Fear at Kings Dominion had been standing but not operating, possibly awaiting removal and relocation to another Paramount park. However, on August 18, 2006, Flight of Fear reopened, under the park's new owner, Cedar Fair, L.P., which now intends to keep the ride at Kings Dominion.

Layout

Flight of Fear is located in a building near another of Kings Dominion's launched roller coasters, Volcano, the Blast Coaster, which is nearly twice as tall as Flight of Fear at its highest point. [1]

After boarding Flight of Fear, riders are launched through a narrow launch tunnel into a "spaghetti bowl" of track which contains a cobra roll, a sidewinder, and many twists and turns. After reaching the ride's mid-course brake run, riders spiral downward and to the left, and after more twists and turns they pass through a corkscrew before arriving at the ride's final brake run.

Premier Rides built several of these LIM Catapult roller coasters from 1996 to 1999, although, of those, only the two Flight of Fear rides are indoors. The outdoor LIM Catapult coasters in the United States are Joker's Jinx at Six Flags America, Poltergeist at Six Flags Fiesta Texas; both opened in 1999. In addition, a LIM Catapult coaster called Mad Cobra operated at Suzuka Circuit in Japan from 1998–2003; Mad Cobra was moved to China and reopened at Kingdoms of Discovery in 2006. [2] [3] The five Premier LIM catapult coasters share a similar layout and have the same technical specifications.

Statistics and awards

Flight of Fear was built by Premier Rides and was the world's first linear induction motor roller coaster. Its highest peak is 74 ft (23 m); and its total length is 2,705 feet (824 m). Its maximum speed, which is attained in less than four seconds during its launch, is 56 mph (90 km/h). [4] The launch requires 3 megawatts of electric power. [5] When it opened, Flight of Fear had the fastest acceleration of any roller coaster in the world. Flight of Fear won awards at the November 1995 International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions trade show for the best new Major Theme/Amusement Park Ride/Attraction and Technology Applied to Amusements. [6] [7]

Flight of Fear initially had over-the-shoulder restraints, but those were replaced with individual ratcheting lapbars at the beginning of the 2001 season. The over-the-shoulder restraints, combined with the curving track, caused young riders' heads to bounce back and forth between the restraints. The new lapbar system won Flight of Fear its third award from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, and its second for Technology Applied to Amusements. [8] [9]

Theming

Originally, the ride was themed to the television show The Outer Limits and was called The Outer Limits: Flight of Fear (at the time, a revival of the series produced by the original's rights-holders, MGM Television, was airing on Showtime - a sister company to Paramount Parks). Because the license for using the The Outer Limits name and theming expired, the ride's name changed to Flight of Fear at the start of the 2001 season.

The ride's queue still contains UFO-related theming, although it is no longer based on a television show or film. The ride's building is designed to represent a military installation, and has a sign outside informing riders, "You are entering a government security zone. Area under constant surveillance." [10] The original Flight of Fear queue contained several distinct stages. Riders entered the Flight of Fear building through a "Press Area" which included queue switchbacks under an awning. They were then led down a narrow tunnel into the interior of the hangar (where if you look through a "crack" in the wall, you can see a pile of alien bodies), where a the mockup of one half of a UFO appears to be sitting in the middle of the room via the use of mirrors. The UFO includes strobe lightning effects. The queue winds around inside of the building before entering the underside of the UFO up a short flight of stairs. Inside the interior queue area, a video played over multiple monitors that explains how the UFO was recovered not far from the park. While some of the personnel of the base are running tests on it, other personnel are convinced it's a hoax and decide to allow the public inside the hangar to view it.

The interior queue area is now largely blocked off due to its use during Halloween Haunt. The line currently enters on the right side of the building and follows the perimeter of the room around to the entrance of the UFO. The monitors that formerly played the queue movie have mostly been removed.

The queue takes a right turn inside the UFO and then sharp left turn into the boarding area. The loading and unloading sections are separate, so riders in the loading side of the station see an empty train returning. Inside the loading station there are pods which contain mannequins dressed in the park's souvenir clothing and wrapped in plastic to look like they've been captured by the aliens. In addition, the two stations are the only parts of the ride which had much lighting; most of the ride is in the dark. As such, the Flight of Fear buildings at Kings Dominion and Kings Island have also been used to store trains and parts for other rides; the Kings Island Flight of Fear building formerly held the trains for that park's defunct stand-up coaster, King Cobra and still holds some of the seats removed from The Crypt.

Some of the theming includes hidden references to real places and names. The outside of the hangar is marked with the number 18, a reference to Hangar 18 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base where the Roswell crash site evidence is supposedly stored. A sign above the entrance to the queue reads "Fort Kinzel Press Area," referring to Cedar Fair Entertainment Company CEO Richard Kinzel.

External links

• Roller Coaster Database entry
• COASTER-net Ride Gallery
• Premier Rides - ride specifications for all of the LIM Catapult roller coasters