Pandemonium (roller coaster)

Pandemonium is the name of multiple Gerstlauer steel spinning roller coasters that are located at several Six Flags theme parks including Six Flags New England, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Six Flags St. Louis, Six Flags Over Texas, and previously at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. Its design consists of several cars holding four riders each. While the cars traverse the track, they spin around according to the angle of the track and the shifts in the riders' weight.

History

The original Pandemonium opened at Six Flags New England on April 14, 2005 as Mr. Six's Pandemonium (Six Flags dropped the "Mr. Six's" prefix one year later).^[4] It was the only spinning roller coaster at a Six Flags park until 2007 and 2008 when Six Flags opened another 4 spinning roller coasters — all named Tony Hawk's Big Spin.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} The rides were originally billed as the "total Tony Hawk experience" and were designed to have the look and feel of giant red-and-black skateparks.^[10] They offered a full "extreme sports" experience, with monitors in the queue lines displaying highlights of the history of action sports and a large spinning Tony Hawk figure crowning the rides. Tony Hawk's Big Spin merchandise was also available at the rides' exits. They were named after the skateboarding trick of the same name, which is a body varial with the skateboard rotating fully once, or 360 degrees. Prior to the opening of the rides, Tony Hawk's Boom Boom HuckJam toured through several Six Flags parks in 2006 and 2007.^[11] In late 2010, Six Flags began the process of cancelling licensed intellectual property deals they had with various brands including Tony Hawk. The 4 Tony Hawk's Big Spins were originally renamed to Big Spin before being renamed and rethemed to Pandemonium.^{[6][7][8][9][12]}

After January 1, 2012 (the end of the 2011 season at Discovery Kingdom), Pandemonium at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom was closed to be removed to make room for the park's newest coaster Superman: Ultimate Flight for the 2012 season.^[13][14][15]

Layout

The layout consists of several "segments" separated by brakes. The first segment comprises a swooping drop and climb into the second segment, which is a series of S-shaped turns. The third segment is a heavily banked figure-8; the fourth is a series of hills that form a semicircle; the fifth is a pair of small hills; and the sixth is a helix into the seventh segment; a long loop, which leads to a massive hill, and finally into the brake run.

Gallery

References

External links

• Pandemonium at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom
• Pandemonium at Six Flags Fiesta Texas
• Pandemonium at Six Flags New England
• Pandemonium at Six Flags Over Texas
• Pandemonium at Six Flags St. Louis