Limits of coasters and thrill rides?

Although I love riding coasters, I am not that knowlegeable of their engineering. I was just wondering, how high can they build them? What are the limits?

I remember back when MF was built, everyone thought that 300 feet was insane. Now TTD and Kingda Ka are 400 pushing 500. What's next? 700? 800? Soon 1000ft? How high can they safely go?

It's not a question of physics, but economics. :)

I don't even think it is a question of economics. $100 million could build a pretty tall rollercoaster. And some companies (Disney and Universal) could certainly afford to do that. What it really comes down to is how many folks would ride an extreme ride like that?

Dragster certainly gets ridden but I'm not sure attendance at Cedar Point got a boost from Dragster. The higher, faster, crazier they go to more people they take out of the potential ridership figures.

My question isn't how tall will they go, but how tall can they go?

and the answer is how much money do you have? I am sure Intamin will attempt it...

Right. If you've got the money you could feasibly go up to the 500 foot mark, or maybe even heights of 700 or 800 feet. As the others have said, however, this would require immense support structures and a LOT of money. It's hard to financially justify a project like that in the current economy. From an engineering standpoint, A ride that high would generate incredible amounts of speed, and it's unlikely that the human body would respond well to that speed in open air.

I think it's also a matter of what the human body can endure. It's a proven fact that enough g's will cause you to pass out. There's a thread on here somewhere about blacking out at the bottom of the first drop on MF. While I've never had this happen, I do get light headed almost every time. The taller and faster you go, the more g forces are exerted. It may be a matter of what is safe.

If it's possible to build a pressurized cabin on a track of steel, height and speed are unlimmited. But then what is the point in having a track, might as well be flying! But of course that would mean a lot of fuel.. which leads to the obvious limiting factor.

I just hope someone eventually tops Kingda Ka.

G-forces are relative. Dragster does 1.5 G's while Wildcat does 4. It's the duration that matters most.

Height and speed do not impress me. Make the ride interesting first.

dragster does 4 g's there buddy

Then the issue comes , to what level will people go?

Make a ride that simulates being inside a tornado and you've got me on board.

Did anyone see that t.v. special on cable where a 

1000ft coaster off a side of a building in san fransico

was designed to have 2 large air time hills using 

the Golden Gate Bridge as a support, and the ride 

would go through the downtown area.... It was designed 

in the early 1900's... :) Someone wants to attempt to

build this thing..

(I saw this special 2-4 years ago)

^ Yeah, actually I think I do remember that too.

I also "grey" out at the bottom of MF's first hill. But Dragster and Kingda Ka are both 100 feet over MF, and no one has had problems on them.

I was just curious, because my sis and I were talking about it the last time we were at CP. We were talking about how it took them forever to go from 200 feet to 300. But then it only took a couple more years to break the 400ft mark. So we were just thinking, how high will they go 10 years from now.

I just can't imagine anyone saying, "Did you hear Cedar Point has built a 1000ft coaster? I can't wait to ride it!" Although I love coasters, that might be a bit high for me...

^ - but look at what was sacrificed in order to break 400 so quickly. Rather than building a well-rounded, "complete" ride, they built a one trick pony. Its a heck of a trick, but also not as "complete" as Magnum or Millennium.

Again, I don't think it is a matter of physics or money really. If you are going to spend $25 million + on an attraction it better be something that is going to be of interest to an awful lot of people...enough so to make a significant improvement to your attendance numbers.

I would be really surprised if Cedar Point goes higher than Dragster in the forseeable future. That isn't to say some park won't try to go to 500 feet...but...I just don't see the return on the investment.

Jesz said:

I also "grey" out at the bottom of MF's first hill. But Dragster and Kingda Ka are both 100 feet over MF, and no one has had problems on them.

I'm pretty sure the reason for that is the very fast "pull out" at the bottom of MF that TTD lacks. On MF, you reach the bottom and are very quickly thrown back up into the first overbanked turn. This quick transition from down to up at 90+ mph is what creates the serious g's. On the other hand, TTD levels out gradually and goes parallel to the ground and across the finish line, creating less g's and less force on the body.

I remember reading an interview with the S&S Power guys and they said the technical/mechanical limit for one of their space shots is about 300 feet, but that there was no limit to how tall they could make a turbo drop.

It's highly doubtful anyone -- any park chain, not just CF or SF -- will top Kingda Ka for the next decade or so. The price of steel has quadrupled in the last few years, significantly jacking up the price of construction and stretching out the number of years required to pay back such an investment.

As far as the theoretical engineering limitations, there's no reason a two thousand foot tall coaster couldn't be built. It'd probably cost a billion dollars to build, but it could be done.

I could see some crazy sheik in UAE deciding to top the record, or maybe some mega-rich corporation in Singapore or Shanghai (the same sorts of companies that try to one up each other for the highest buildings), but other than those exceptions, nobody is crazy enough/has the ridiculous scads of money to even attempt it.

What I would like to see is using mountain topography more in ride construction. Just watching those alpine slides on Youtube makes me salivate at the possibility. Imagine a true coaster built on a mountain side, negotiating a seemingly endless series of two to four hundred foot drops as it wends its way down the cliffs. Now that would be a ride I'd pay good money to ride.