a question i have

i have been following the progress of this roller coaster for about 6 months now, and have been to cedar point 4 times. I live in Spokane, Washington. There are a few questions that i have in reguards to a huge senior project that i have to do in order to pass highschool. i chose to do this project on a mechanical engineer, who works for a roller coaster firm. I just wanted to ask if anyone knows what the ideal education would be to design roller coasters for a firm, like Intamin AG, or somethin. And what education do you feel would be required for this job.

and what about them yankees?

Before you get yelled at for double posting, let me try to answer your question. Many roller coaster engineers are actually mechanical engineers. Take the hydraulic launch system on TTD. It was more than likely designed my MEs. Electrical/Computer engineers also play a part. Someone has to set up the electrical systems/write the computer systems to drive the hardware. More than likely ECEs. Matreials Engineers probably played a part in choosing the metals for the track and support, and in the wheels, civil engineers the structure and footers, industrial engineers helped plan the most effecient queue line placement and station design. The point I was trying to make was, as in most jobs in the real world, the lines between the egineering diciplines blur. Best bet though would be ME or ECE. It's a hard industry to get into, with a limited number of companies (and even fewer in the US). Good luck though!

--James
*** This post was edited by jdoty 4/3/2003 1:12:50 AM ***

I am currently in school studying for a Civil and Mechanical Engineering Degree to give myself a good chance to get into the coaster design industry.

But.... there is no IDEAL education, it all depends on the part of the ride you're working on.

thanks for that reply. it helped me a ton! I knew that their were many different types of engineers involved in the design and building of a roller coaster, i just didn't know exactly what each one of them did! for my project i am gonna use two sets of screamin serpent k'nex roller coaster sets and build an "almost to scale" model of TTD, and take pics showing different elements of the ride.

and sorry about the double post....im still new to this...and didn't know what i was doin at the time

an answer i have