Steel Dragon 2000
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2012) |
| Steel Dragon 2000 | |
|---|---|
 Steel Dragon 2000 | |
| Nagashima Spa Land | |
| Location | Nagashima Spa Land |
| Coordinates | 35°01′52″N 136°43′48″E / 35.031156°N 136.730078°E |
| Status | Operating |
| Opening date | August 1, 2000 |
| Cost | About $52,000,000 USD |
| General statistics | |
| Type | Steel |
| Manufacturer | D. H. Morgan Manufacturing |
| Designer | Steve Okamoto |
| Track layout | Out and Back |
| Lift/launch system | One Lift With Two Chain Lifts |
| Height | 318 ft (97 m) |
| Drop | 306 ft (93 m) |
| Length | 8,133 ft (2,479 m) |
| Speed | 95.23 mph (153.26 km/h) |
| Inversions | 0 |
| Duration | 4:00 [1] |
| Max vertical angle | 65° |
| Capacity | 1050 riders per hour |
| Height restriction | 48 in (122 cm) |
| Steel Dragon 2000 at RCDB | |
Steel Dragon 2000 (スチールドラゴン2000, Suchiiru Doragon Nisen) is a roller coaster at Nagashima Spa Land amusement park in Mie Prefecture, Japan. Built by Morgan Manufacturing, this coaster opened, appropriately, in 2000—"The Year of the Dragon" in Asia. It debuted only months after Millennium Force at Cedar Point, and surpassed that as the world's tallest complete-circuit coaster. It lost these records in height in 2003 when Top Thrill Dragster opened at Cedar Point. It also took the record for the longest track length—8,133 feet 2 inches (2,478.99 m)—which it currently holds.
Incidents
On October 19, 2003, a sheared axle caused one of the trains to lose a wheel. Evan Donovan, a guest in the water park, suffered a broken hip as a result. The ride was "Standing But Not Operating" (SBNO) for almost three years and reopened in 2006.
Design
- Steel Dragon 2000 is the tallest coaster to use a traditional chain lift. Because of the length of the lift hill, two chains are used—one for the bottom half and one for the top half. A single chain would have been excessively long, heavy and very slow, at least twice the weight of a single train. As a result, the block brakes are set up to allow two trains to safely occupy the lift simultaneously.
- The building of Steel Dragon 2000 required far more steel than other coasters for earthquake protection. This put the cost of the coaster at over $50 million.
References
 | This article about an amusement ride or roller coaster is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |