I hope this has some good forces to it. Wild Eagle had NO G's of any kind, and it underwhelmed. I think the best part is that airtime hill, which is actually what I think wingriders should be doing- airtime hills. A Nitro-like design with winged trains? That's what I want, not more inversions.

^I'm not sure how those big and heavy trains would handle repeated airtime hills, but I'm fairly sure it wouldn't be done as graciously as Nitro and the other Hypers do it. The weight and sheer size of the trains would kill speed rather quickly, requiring each airtime hill to be substantially shorter than the previous one if it were to bring any forces.

Speaking of forces, the amount of angular momentum caused by the weight of the seats and their passengers would put the bars keeping them in place under lots of strain when high Gs are around. While steel indeed can take a rather hefty load, there would be noticeable - possibly critical - differences between 3G and 4G, requiring parts to be replaced more often and in turn making the ride more expensive to run.

And then we haven't even touched the wheels.

But that's the same on the current type of layout, no?

It was meant as a sort of response to the phrase "I hope this has some good forces to it". That would apply no matter if it were a Hyper style coaster, or a twisty looper like this seems to be. In general, I believe the structural problems we associate with high forces on regular coasters are magnified on wingriders, due to the extra-wide cars.

Here are some photos from my visit to CP today. The Wicked Twister Mainway is certainly changing. And lots of dirt!

I <3 Dirt. It's an enthusiasts best friend next to mud.

Looks like they still have a lot of loose concrete to remove before they can prep everything in that area for footers. Still want to see Space Spiral get control demo'd, that will be neat watching it fall.

Oh I agree, but your post made it sound like a wing-rider hyper would be possible, but not worth it due to the high maintenance costs, even though it's the same principle as the non-'hyper' layouts we have currently.

The winged design creates one hell of a moment on the beam supporting the seats. To me, this makes it very interesting to see how these kinds of trains will hold up over time. However, I don't think there will be any significant problems since this is not the first time we have seen this type of design, and not even the first installation by B&M. It seems the problems have been worked out relatively well with X/X2, and that contains moving parts. It looks like the bottom beam that supports the seats had a significant amount of design work done on it as it appears to have a high moment of inertia, and is also a very large piece of steel. It's a statics problem at it's best.

I'll speak from a ropes safety perspective, as that was a portion of my job over the past year.

To have a climbing rope be safe to climb for a high ropes course, our ropes were rated for a weight of at least 6,000 pounds. We of course only had people who weighed up to 300 pounds climbing, but still we could hoist two elephants on our rope if need be with no concern about tensile strength.

Extrapolate that.

Roller coaster trains are designed to experience forces way beyond their daily experience, strong enough to carry thousands of pounds that they never will. It isn't a question of roller coaster trains wearing out or falling to disrepair - the trains are designed to operate well beyond normal parameters.

^Exactly.

Right up until some park decides to forego required inspections to save a buck. Such as perhaps expensive X-ray testing of axles? Then after enough years of neglect and wear and tear something eventually fails and a woman gets decapitated.

But that's just something that happened in Japan. Y'know. A country know for fastidious adherence to regulations and safety. Unlike perhaps Italy? A country known for laissez faire attitude about virtually everything and the home to the first B&M Wing coaster. Hopefully, that won't turn out to be a bad combination.

OBTW, I'm a pessimist, if you didn't guess.

Rest assured - Ohio has one of the most extensive laws and inspections overseeing amusement park operation in the United States.

Tourism is the fourth largest industry for the state, and number one for Erie county. The last thing Ohio needs is for there to be an equipment failure.

Panning back to the photos I posted, as Lance posted on Screamscape, there is now a definite gapping hole in the Wicked Twister midway. It is weird to see so much blue sky with the Space Spiral standing so seemingly vacant. DT's footprint was immense, which has drastically changed the skyline on this side of the park.

This looks incredible, can't wait to try it next year. And it does look like a huge empty space.

Looks weird without my boy DT in that corner.