Air-time

A camelback hill is a common way of achieving air-time on a roller coaster

In the context of amusement rides, air-time refers to the time during which riders of a roller coaster or other ride experience either weightlessness or negative G-forces. With roller coasters, air-time is usually achieved when the train travels over a hill at speed. Hypercoasters, such as Magnum XL-200 at Cedar Point, Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland, Superman the Ride at Six Flags New England, and Goliath at Six Flags Over Georgia, along with many wooden roller coasters, such as Balder at Liseberg, The Voyage at Holiday World, El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure are rides known for having a particularly high total air-time.

Air-time is a result of the effects of the inertia of the train and the riders: as the train goes over a hill transitioning from an ascent into a descent guided by the rails, the inertia of the relatively loosely-attached riders causes them to momentarily continue upwards, resulting in the riders being lifted out of their seats. The duration of air-time on a particular hill is dependent on the velocity of the train, gravity, and the radius of the track's transition from ascent to descent. Zero-G (where the net vertical G-force is 0) is achieved when the downward acceleration is equal to that of gravity; where the downward acceleration is greater, negative Gs arise.

The zero-gravity roll is a roll specifically designed to create the effect of weightlessness and thereby produce air-time.

For rollercoasters there are multiple types of air-time:

As well as rollercoasters, drop towers can provide the feeling of weightlessness. For example, in the case of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios, Disney California Adventure, Tokyo DisneySea, and Disneyland Paris, the elevator drops riders faster than gravity normally would, causing them to rise off of their seats by several inches whilst being held down by only a seatbelt, creating the sensation of zero-G. Most drop towers, however, have shoulder bars, preventing riders from rising significantly from their seats, even where negative Gs are present.

The motion-simulator ride Mission: SPACE at EPCOT also includes the sensation of weightlessness after takeoff, just as you enter space.


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