Inverted Coaster (B&M model)

Inverted Coaster is a model line from Bolliger & Mabillard. It has produced 32 models 28 years of production, the most successful model produced by the company. [4]

Inverted Coaster [1]
Katun's vertical loop at Mirabilandia in Italy. [2]
Status	In Production
First manufactured	1992
No. of installations	32
Manufacturer	Bolliger & Mabillard
Vehicle type	Floorless seats located bellow the track
Rows	8
Riders per row	4
Restraint Style	Over-the-shoulder/Vest restraint
Inverted Coaster [3] at RCDB

History

The first installation was Batman: The Ride at Six Flags Great America, which was also the first inverted roller coaster.[5] This roller coaster was what put Bolliger & Mabillard on the map as a household name in the Amusement ride world. This was their third roller coaster after producing two Stand-Up coasters which were given good reviews. It was so popular that other manufacturers took on their own designs of the coaster model. The idea came from when Walter Bolliger & Claude Mabillard wanted to push the envelop on what they could do. The saw that Arrow Dynamics had created an idea of riders sitting below the track but the only flaw to Arrows model was that it couldn’t invert, so the took two years to develop the model and then the Invert was born.

In 1999, with the opening of Universal's Islands Of Adventure, B&M created their first and only pair of dueling coasters. However, in 2017, the ride closed to make way for a Harry Potter themed attractions to fit the theme of a film based park. [6]

Design

B&M style inverted roller coaster car.

The design never really varies from park to park, where ride vehicles are arranged in 8 rows of 4 seats meaning overall 32 people fit on the train. Each ride car is 4 seats in one row.

Inversions found on B&M Inverts are: Corkscrews (with 52), Vertical Loops (with 46), Zero G Rolls (with 33), Immelmanns (with 11), Cobra Rolls (with 8), The Dive Loop (with 2), one Pretzel Knot and one Inline Twist.

Each coaster of the model have 2 or 3 trains. You tend to find 2 on smaller versions and on the Batman clones. 3 trains are found on larger versions of the roller coaster. Banshee opened in 2014 and is the first and currently only installation to use Bolliger & Mabillard's vest harnesses. Previous installations all use over-the-shoulder harnesses. The same year, the first Bolliger & Mabillard family inverted roller coaster opened, however these are a separate product: the Family Coaster. After 7 years Monster at Gröna Lund was built being the second B&M Invert with vest restraints. [7]

Layout

Batman Clones

There have been 12 clones of this version. The layout follows: [8]

Elements

● Chain lift hill ● Vertical loop ● Zero-g roll ● Vertical loop ● Corkscrew ● Final Brake run

Raptor Clones

There have been 2 clones of this version. The layout follows: [9]

Elements

● Chain lift hill ● Vertical loop ● Zero-g roll ● Cobra roll ● Mid-course Brake run ● Corkscrew ● Corkscrew ● Final Brake run

Installations

Some B&M Inverts

Batman: The Ride at Six Flags Great America, the first B&M Invert [10]

Nemesis at Alton Towers [11]

Alpengeist at Busch Gardens Williamsburg [12]

Dragon Challenge at Universal's Islands of Adventure [13]

Black Mamba at Phantasialand [14]

Phaethon at Gyeongju World [15]

Banshee at Kings Island [16]

Name	Park	Country	Layout	Opened	Status	RCDb [17]
Batman: The Ride	Six Flags Great America	USA	Batman	May 9, 1992	Operating	[18]
Flight Deck	California's Great America	USA	Custom	March 19, 1993	Operating	[19]
Batman: The Ride	Six Flags Great Adventure	USA	Batman	May 1, 1993	Operating	[20]
Nemesis	Alton Towers	UK	Custom	March 19, 1994	Operating	[21]
Batman: The Ride	Six Flags Magic Mountain	USA	Batman	March 26, 1994	Operating	[22]
Raptor	Cedar Point	USA	Raptor	May 7, 1994	Operating	[23]
Diavlo	Himeji Central Park	Japan	Batman	July 1994	Operating	[24]
Batman: The Ride	Six Flags St. Louis	USA	Batman (mirror)	April 22, 1995	Operating	[25]
Montu	Busch Gardens Tampa	USA	Custom	May 16, 1996	Operating	[26]
Pyrenees	Parque Espana-Shima Spain Village	Japan	Custom	1997	Operating	[27]
The Great White	SeaWorld San Antonio	USA	Batman	February 1997	Operating	[28]
Alpengeist	Busch Gardens Williamsburg	USA	Custom	March 22, 1997	Operating	[29]
Batman: The Ride	Six Flags Over Georgia	USA	Batman	May 3, 1997	Operating	[30]
Great Bear	Hersheypark	USA	Custom	May 23, 1998	Operating	[31]
Afterburn	Carowinds	USA	Custom	March 20, 1999	Operating	[32]
Batman: The Ride	Six Flags Over Texas	USA	Batman	May 26, 1999	Operating	[33]
Dragon Challenge	Universal's Islands of Adventure	USA	Custom	May 28, 1999	Closed September 4, 2017	[34]
Katun	Mirabilandia	Italy	Custom	April 1, 2000	Operating	[35]
Talon	Dorney Park	USA	Custom	May 5, 2001	Operating	[36]
Batman: Arkham Asylum	Parque Warner Madrid	Spain	Batman	April 6, 2002	Operating	[37]
Le Vampire	La Ronde	Canada	Batman (mirror)	May 18, 2002	Operating	[38]
Nemesis Inferno	Thorpe Park	UK	Custom	April 5, 2003	Operating	[39]
Lightning	Kuwait Entertainment City	Kuwait	Batman	2004	SBNO, closed June 5, 2016	[40]
Silver Bullet	Knott's Berry Farm	USA	Custom	December 7, 2004	Operating	[41]
Patriot	Worlds of Fun	USA	Custom	April 8, 2006	Operating	[42]
Black Mamba	Phantasialand	Germany	Custom	May 24, 2006	Operating	[43]
Phaethon	Gyeongju World	South Korea	Custom	May 5, 2007	Operating	[44]
Goliath Formerly Batman The Ride Formerly Gambit	Six Flags Fiesta Texas Six Flags New Orleans Thrill Valley	USA  USA  Japan	Batman (mirror)	April 18, 2008 April 12, 2003 1995	Operating Closed August 21, 2005 Closed May 6, 2002	[45] [46] [47]
The Monster Formerly Orochi	Walygator Parc Expoland	France  Japan	Raptor	July 9, 2010}} 1996	Operating Closed December 9, 2007	[48] [49]
OzIris	Parc Astérix	France	Custom	April 7, 2012	Operating	[50]
Banshee	Kings Island	USA	Custom	April 18, 2014	Operating	[51]
Monster	Gröna Lund	Sweden	Custom	2021	Under construction	[52]

Similar Coasters

Vekoma

In 1994, Vekoma produced the Suspended Looping Coaster. It was designed as a lower cost and cheaper version. Vekoma ceased this opportunity as the saw the success of the B&M counterpart but knew the model was expensive so the invested into a cheaper version. This however has not aged well over time compared to the B&Ms. The have become notorious for head banging, roughness and being very uncomfortable.

In 2001, Vekoma produced the Suspended Family Coaster, a junior inverted coaster that B&M even went on to copy. It utilises the new style Vekoma track which was unique to this model until recently.

As the demise of the SLC came, Vekoma came out with the Suspended Thrill Coaster a new smoother successor to the SLC. In 2020, only 1 model has been sold at Erlebnispark Tripsdrill in Germany.

Intamin

Pinfari

Due to the success of their Big Apple coasters, Pinfari created the Queen Bee an inverted Big Apple Coaster. However only two have been produced.

Fabbri Group

Mack Rides

Mack Rides produced an inverted version of their powered coaster. Each ride cars has 4 people and they individually turns, but only one of these have been produced: at Europa-Park, Mack Rides own park.

Guiness World Records

	Tallest inverted roller coaster	Fastest inverted roller coaster	Longest inverted roller coaster
1992	Batman: The Ride (Six Flags Great America)	Batman: The Ride (Six Flags Great America)	Batman: The Ride (Six Flags Great America)
1993
1994	Raptor (Cedar Point)	Raptor (Cedar Point)	Raptor (Cedar Point)
1995
1996	Montu (Busch Gardens Tampa)	Montu (Busch Gardens Tampa)	Montu (Busch Gardens Tampa)
1997	Alpengeist (Busch Gardens Williamsburg)	Alpengeist (Busch Gardens Williamsburg)	Pyrenees (Parque Espana-Shima Spain Village)
1998		Record Held by Intamin
1999
2000
2001
2002	Record Held by Intamin
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014			Banshee (Kings Island)
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020

References

1. "Inverted Coaster (RCDb)".
2. Marden, Duane. "Katun  (Mirabilandia)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
3. "Inverted Coaster (RCDb)".
4. "B&M Inverted Coaster".
5. Meyer, Russell (May 12, 2014). "Coaster Tech: An Insider's look at inverted coasters". themeparkinsider.com. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
6. Sposato, Sean (September 5, 2017). "Dragon Challenge". insidethemagic.net. Retrieved August 15, 2020.
7. "Monster at Gröna Lund".
8. "Batman Clones".
9. "Batman Clones".
10. Marden, Duane. "Batman: The Ride  (Six Flags Great America)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
11. Marden, Duane. "Nemesis  (Alton Towers)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
12. Marden, Duane. "Alpengeist  (Busch Gardens Williamsburg)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
13. Marden, Duane. "Dragon Challenge  (Universal's Islands of Adventure)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
14. Marden, Duane. "Black Mamba  (Phantasialand)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
15. Marden, Duane. "Phaethon  (Gyeongju World)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
16. Marden, Duane. "Banshee  (Kings Island)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
17. "Roller Coaster Database".
18. Marden, Duane. "Batman: The Ride  (Six Flags Great America)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
19. Marden, Duane. "Flight Deck  (California's Great America)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
20. Marden, Duane. "Batman: The Ride  (Six Flags Great Adventure)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
21. Marden, Duane. "Nemesis  (Alton Towers)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
22. Marden, Duane. "Batman: The Ride  (Six Flags Magic Mountain)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
23. Marden, Duane. "Raptor  (Cedar Point)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
24. Marden, Duane. "Diavlo  (Himeji Central Park)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
25. Marden, Duane. "Batman: The Ride  (Six Flags St. Louis)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
26. Marden, Duane. "Montu  (Busch Gardens Tampa)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
27. Marden, Duane. "Pyrenees  (Parque Espana-Shima Spain Village)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
28. Marden, Duane. "The Great White  (SeaWorld San Antonio)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
29. Marden, Duane. "Alpengeist  (Busch Gardens Williamsburg)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
30. Marden, Duane. "Batman: The Ride  (Six Flags Over Georgia)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
31. Marden, Duane. "Great Bear  (Hersheypark)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
32. Marden, Duane. "Afterburn  (Carowinds)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
33. Marden, Duane. "Batman: The Ride  (Six Flags Over Texas)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
34. Marden, Duane. "Dragon Challenge  (Universal's Islands of Adventure)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
35. Marden, Duane. "Katun  (Mirabilandia)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
36. Marden, Duane. "Talon  (Dorney Park)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
37. Marden, Duane. "Batman: Arkham Asylum  (Parque Warner Madrid)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
38. Marden, Duane. "Le Vampire  (La Ronde)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
39. Marden, Duane. "Nemesis Inferno  (Thorpe Park)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
40. Marden, Duane. "Lightning  (Kuwait Entertainment City)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
41. Marden, Duane. "Silver Bullet  (Knott's Berry Farm)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
42. Marden, Duane. "Patriot  (Worlds of Fun)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
43. Marden, Duane. "Black Mamba  (Phantasialand)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
44. Marden, Duane. "Phaethon  (Gyeongju World)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
45. Marden, Duane. "Goliath  (Six Flags Over Texas)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
46. Marden, Duane. "Batman: The Ride  (Six Flags New Orleans)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
47. Marden, Duane. "Gambit  (Thrill Valley)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
48. Marden, Duane. "The Monster  (Walygator Parc)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
49. Marden, Duane. "Orochi  (Expoland)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
50. Marden, Duane. "OzIris  (Parc Astérix)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
51. Marden, Duane. "Banshee  (Kings Island)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
52. Marden, Duane. "Monster  (Gröna Lund)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved 14 August 2020.

External Links

 This article incorporates text available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license.