William Cobb

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This article is about the engineer. For other persons by this name, see William Cobb (disambiguation)

William L. "Bill" Cobb (1917 – December 17, 1990), was a designer and engineer of roller coasters, as the founder and head of William Cobb & Associates. He is particularly noted for his work on designing and relocating several major wooden roller coasters in the 1970s and 1980s. A number of these coasters were world-record holders at the time of their opening.

On the subject of roller coaster design, Cobb has been quoted as saying "You have to be a little bit mean. Sometimes you have to be a little bit sneaky. You get them going on a nice straight track and they think 'This looks smooth,' and then you dip it down a little to give them a good jolt. Or you have it so that when they go over a hill it looks like they're going to get their heads chopped off at the bottom" .^[1]

[edit] Roller coasters by Cobb

The following roller coasters were either designed or engineered (in whole or part) by William Cobb:

Name	Park	Year Built	Notes
Anaconda	Walibi Lorraine	1989
Arkansas Twister	Magic Springs and Crystal Falls	1978	Built as the Florida Hurricane for Circus World (later Boardwalk and Baseball) in Florida, relocated to Arkansas in 1992. Named to "Top Ten Coasters in America" its first year of operation. It is the largest wooden coaster to be relocated in its original configuration.
Cyclone	Six Flags New England	1983
Judge Roy Scream	Six Flags Over Texas	1980
Monstre	Six Flags La Ronde	1985
Rolling Thunder	Six Flags Great Adventure	1979
Screamin' Eagle	Six Flags St. Louis	1976	Was the world's tallest, fastest and longest duration roller coaster when it opened.
Sierra Tonante	Mirabilandia (Italy)	1992	Was the Europe's tallest, fastest and longest duration roller coaster when it opened.
Texas Cyclone	Six Flags AstroWorld	1976	AstroWorld hired Cobb to design and build after an attempt to buy and relocate the Coney Island Cyclone, in danger of being torn down at the time, proved too expensive. The Texas Cyclone is a mirror image of the original Coney Island Cyclone. The Texas Cyclone itself was demolished with the closing of AstroWorld in 2005.
Tornado	Adventureland (Iowa)	1978	Once listed among the top ten wooden roller coasters in the world
Tree Topper	Upper Clements Park	1989	The last roller coaster designed by William Cobb