Amusement Park News

Record breaking thrills are coasting in at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, Calif. The park has reached a grand total of 20 roller coasters, an achievement that park president Don McCoy describes as “a tremendous accomplishment.”

The newest arrival is Wonder Woman Flight of Courage, which the park installed with past ride collaborator Rocky Mountain Construction. It's described as the tallest and longest single rail coaster developed and built by RMC.

While the ride is similar to a coaster at New Jersey's Six Flags Great Adventure, the west coast iteration has differences. McCoy says the coaster's single-rail track and coaster design is the big thrill factor for the ride, which differs from the New Jersey ride in several significant ways. According to RMC COO Jake Kilcup, both the brake run and station exit were turned at a 90-degree angle, enabling the ride to use a station that was already in place. The resulting banked curves at the conclusion of the ride makes the final portion of the experience far different from that of the Great Adventure coaster. 



Tall, fast, unique coasters are the signature for Six Flags Magic Mountain, McCoy says, and Wonder Woman Flight of Courage fits the bill. The ride uses four trains with a continuously moving station flow that allows maximum capacity to be reached as riders board and exit the cars.

Terming the ride unlike any other in the park, McCoy adds that the coaster's single-rail design is quite different from other rides as “riders fly along the track solo.” This allows passengers to experience an up-leveled thrill with every turn.

No other coaster in the park is a single-rail, and it is also the tallest coaster of its type, in both height and its 3,300-foot length. With a speed of 58 miles per hour, the coaster's first drop is among its most thrilling at 87-degrees, following the train's ascent up 131-feet. Along with drops and turns, riders also experience three inversions: a zero-G stall, a zero-G roll, and a dive loop. These moves are every bit a fit for the Wonder Woman name. The entrance and queue line both feature theming tied to Wonder Woman's origins on her secret home island of Themyscira. The ride has a 48-inch height limit. 


All in all, the towering ride lasts for a full two minutes, featuring a total of five major thrills including the inversions. It opened in mid-July and is located in the DC Universe section of the park. The iconic DC character is joined in this section of the park with Batman The Ride, and a retail store featuring a wide range of DC merchandise. Other DC universe characters are also represented at Six Flags, including The Riddler and Superman. 

But along with the significance of the Wonder Woman ride's height, speed, and single rail intensity, more historic is the fact that the park is making a major name for itself by having more coasters than any other theme park globally.

McCoy asserts that the park is “making history with the debut of our record 20th coaster, the most at any theme park in the world. We are extremely proud to be the first theme park to accomplish this unprecedented and amazing feat as we add yet another world-class coaster to our iconic lineup.”

That line-up includes coasters such as Apocalypse, a wooden coaster with a sci-fi theme, in which riders take industrial-style cars, dodging wrecks and weaving through drops and rapid turns along 2,850-feet of track. 

Batman the Ride allows riders' legs to dangle up a 105-foot lift that leads right to a 360-degree loop, a fully inverted roll, and a second loop, followed by two sets of wingovers and corkscrew descents.

Full Throttle takes thrill-seekers 160 feet skyward, features three separate launches, and a speed of 70 miles per hour. It also changes directions mid-loop for even more rider excitement. The coaster is billed as the fastest and tallest looping coaster worldwide.

Billed as a hyper-coaster, Goliath is a themed metal coaster that brings riders into its experience through the “ruins of an ancient civilization” according to the park's press release. With a drop of 255-feet at 85 miles per hour, the long and fast drop takes riders below ground into a dark tunnel before shooting passengers up and over their next hill, where they will experience some major airtime along the ride's 4,500-foot track.



Ninja is an unusual swinging coaster, of which there are just four of in the U.S. Riders swing along 2700-feet of track while secured in a harness. 

Originally opened for the U.S Bicentennial in 1976, 2016 brought a full-on refurbishment to the white steel track coaster called Revolution. The coaster is built into the hillside around the park, and received new Americana-themed red, white, and blue trains and ride effects commemorating its own 40th year. 

Twisted Colossus is a hybrid coaster, combining wood and metal track. The ride twines around the park and through Six Flag's Goliath coaster. Viper sends riders down a 171-foot drop among other scream-worthy moments taken at 70 miles per hour along a twisting coiled track.

West Coast Racers offers two tracks side-by-side, each with individual high-speed launches. Covering two full laps, the racing coaster includes high-banked turns and plenty of airtime, along with a racing theme that features a real time “pit stop”racing pit as part of the ride, along with four magnetic launches, 14 track crossovers, and 55 miles per hour of speed.

Gold Rusher, The New Revolution, The Riddler's Revenge, Scream!, Superman Escape from Krypton, Tatsu, and X2, make up the balance of the adult thrill-ride coasters at the park.