From the child-friendly Crazy Couch to the more-thrilling but still family-friendly collection of Skywarp roller coasters, Skyline Attractions has a diverse collection of amusement rides and services. Their work can be found at parks from California to Florida. But you might not always recognize it. They do some really cool work that often flies under the radar. Here are some highlights of past and current projects Skyline has worked on you may not have heard about.
Engineering Services
Cobra’s Curse, a Mack Rides spinning coaster at Busch Gardens Tampa, opened in June 2016, making 2021 the family thrill ride’s fifth anniversary. Skyline provided its engineering services in conjunction with Ashland Technologies to create the internal support structure of the ride’s signature six-story snake. Skyline has also offered similar services for other major amusement and theme parks.
Skyline also made the Cobra’s Curse model. http://skylineattractions.com/design/#popout/10/
Practically every ride has queue gates and rails, but have you ever considered the work behind them? From complying with applicable ASTM standards to fitting within existing locations, there’s a lot of design and engineering involved (which you can get a sense of when we interviewed Carowinds about Fury 325’s station gates). Skyline provides a complete package for queue gate design and fabrication, including structural analysis, ride commissioning, 3D animations, detailed drawing packages and installation support.
Skyline played a small role in helping recreate John Iver’s Blue Flash backyard roller coaster for the Netflix film All the Bright Places. Though not the first time a roller coaster has been built to film a movie scene, the filmmakers needed an engineered version created with higher safety standards than the original, so Skyline used their experience from working on Great Coasters and their own Skywarp models to design the updated ride’s centerline (with engineering analysis and fabrication completed by other companies). Sadly, the coaster was scrapped after the movie was completed.
Giving Back to the Community
Skyline previously hosted four in-person SKYnext events for young industry professionals. The first was in 2015 and the most recent was in 2018. We interviewed Kate Kujawa about her experience at SKYnext 2018. In November 2020, Skyline Attractions hosted its first SKYnext Reunion. This virtual reunion allowed everyone to reconnect, share their tools to success, and further network. The event also featured two industry veterans who shared their stories and advice with the eager audience.
Skyline has been a big supporter of the National Roller Coaster Museum in Texas for years. Chris Gray, one of the co-founders of Skyline, is on the NRCM board. They love amusement park history, and the NRCM has done an amazing job preserving it. One example is the classic train from the Rollo Coaster at Idlewild Park in Pennsylvania. Skyline provided its engineering and design services to help create this impressive display for the train, spanning between the museum’s upper and lower levels. We here at Coaster101 can’t wait to see it in person one day.
Members of the Skyline team also interact with numerous university’s theme park engineering groups (or equivalent) – whether it’s simply speaking to students in general or judging ride competitions (like the recent Ride Engineering Competition from the TPEG at Iowa State University). Design Engineer Tyler Mullins attended SITE OSU in 2020 and 2021, the Students in Themed Entertainment conference put on by the students of Ohio State’s Theme Park Engineering Group.
Roller Coaster Innovations
Texas Stingray
2020 was shaping up to be a great year for new roller coasters until the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Texas Stingray at SeaWorld San Antonio was one of only three coasters on our “top ten most anticipated list” to actually open in 2020. Sneaking in before the pandemic in February 2020, the tallest, fastest, and longest wooden roller coaster in the state of Texas was manufactured by Great Coasters International (GCI) with its design and engineering provided by Skyline. There was a great article in RollerCoaster! (American Coaster Enthusiasts quarterly magazine Issue 156) that discussed how Skyline created new software to expedite the design and fabrication process and that same software is now being used for a line-up of exciting future projects.
Infinity Flyer Trains
Designed and fabricated for GCI and tested at Fun Spot Orlando, the next generation of coaster trains can take on tighter turns and hills, inversions, and negative Gs, all while reducing the amount on maintenance needed. They utilize Class 5 restraints, allowing for more intense and forceful elements than you can currently find on a GCI ride, while having the ability to keep as low as a 42 inch minimum height requirement if the intensity and the forces allow it.
Titan Track
Another recent collaboration with Great Coasters International is the design and engineering work on the revolutionary new, weld-free Titan Track. Titan Track is steel roller coaster track that could be used for re-tracking high stress areas on pre-existing rides, adding unique new elements to older attractions, or even building new ground-up rides. A 55-foot segment has already been tested at Fun Spot America and has been met with rave reviews.
Future International Projects
Skyline is currently working with GCI again on two exciting international projects scheduled to open in 2021 in the United Arab Emirates and China, including a record breaking coaster. More details will be announced later this year!
Skyline Attractions continues to innovate and push the limits within the theme park industry and beyond. New rides, new technologies, and new ideas all highlight Skyline’s creativity and commitment to the future of our industry. We can’t wait to see what they come up with next!
To stay up-to-date on all their recent and interesting projects, you can sign up for Skyline’s free monthly newsletter here.
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