Huge Kingda Ka Breakdown
Six Flags Great Adventure: The new record-breaker is down for testing.
KK has broken down for a while it seems. No one knows what has happened, except the train is at the end of the launch track and is covered in a tarp. Also, people at the park during the incident have said things were flying from the air and there was smoke. The ride was down all day yesterday (thursday) and is down all day today (Friday) The park is closed for a private event tomorrrow. No one knows when the ride will reopen.
[Amusement Business has a story, too. The magazine reports the ride has been down since Wednesday, when "routine testing revealed an undisclosed malfunction, forcing the park to take the blockbuster attraction off line while tests were run." Cedar Point's Top Thrill Dragster, of similar design, was plagued by operational problems its first year, as well, as the ultra high-speed launch places severe strain on ride systems. -- Ed.]
From Ben Mills
Posted June 10, 2005 at 3:11 PM
Just curious... has there yet been a successful opening of a rocket coaster? I know most have been subject to rushed opening, but it just seems that they all have serious issues on opening... and now I'm worried about Thorpe's 2006 rocket coaster.
All the rocket coasters built in the US, from Xcelerator at Knotts, to Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point, to Stormrunner at Hershey have had fairly large shakedown periods. It stands to reason that Kingda Ka, the biggest one of them all, would also have problems. The very nature of the rocket coaster's technology and what makes it run, also makes it prone to breakdown. It takes a lot of resources to run these contraptions, and there is zero room for error on the launch sequence.
Although the smaller rocket coasters (Stormrunner, Xcelerator) have had their bugs, it's the 420 foot Top Thrill Dragster that has presented the largest problems. It seems that the bigger they are, the worse they run.
Let's remember F=ma.
With the high speeds required to be the fastest coaster (plus, to generate the F required to overcome the 9.8 m/sec2 up to and over a record-breaking height), we're talking about the generation of some massive force here. And things exposed to massive force every minute of every day tend to break.
Heck, there's a reason real Top Fuel dragsters don't make runs 500 times a day....
From Mike M
Posted June 12, 2005 at 6:17 PM
Wow. Congradulations to Intamin for making another one of their coaster unsafe and unreliable. You would think that after the conflicts with Top Thrill Dragster they would have figured all of this out. Even though no official statement has been released, speculations lead to cable snap, faulty train parts, or the extreme heat temperatures of that day. Intamin has proved that they are much to concerned about their egos then the safety of their customers. I do not blame Six Flags Great Adventure for this incident, since that park has never had an accident, and once they get their first Intamin Coaster(excluding Skull Mountain), it makes them look bad. As of Monday, June 13th, Kingda ka is still closed.
I have to find some fault in Six Flags for this. What made them think that Kingda Ka would be any different than Dragster? Intamin restored a little confidence in the rocket coaster product with Stormrunner, but Stormrunner was 180 ft tall....not 456 ft. If Six Flags would have opted for a smaller rocket coaster with multiple elements, than maybe they wouldn't be having these problems. They had to know about all of the problems that Cedar Point had with Dragster....launch speed problems...cooling problems...cables snapping...rollbacks, with the end result being horribly long lines and disappointed guests. Cedar Point has since been able to address most of their problems and keep the ride open for the most part, but not without shelling out money, not to mention that the Point's near impeccable reputation took a hit as well. The difference there is that Six Flags' reputation can't afford to take such hits, but despite Dragster's huge past problems and their financial state, Six Flags still took a gamble on a flawed design and decided to order a bigger rocket coaster, just because they wanted the tallest fastest coaster record. Now they are going to pay for it.
I think that Kingda Ka will probably be the last of the Intamin giant rocket coasters. The smaller models have been pretty reliable for the most part, so they will continue to be built. Intamin has brought some great rides to the table over the years, and make no mistake...0-120 in 4 seconds up and down a 420 foot hill is a truly amazing experience, but it just doesn't make much economic sense for a park to take another $30 million gamble on that kind of ride for some bragging rights.
From Mike M
Posted June 13, 2005 at 6:14 AM
After seeing your point of view, I do agree slightly. However, Six Flags Great Adventure is becoming Six Flag's Flagship park. They have an excellent safety record(comparable to Cedar Point's) and should have thought this through before. Now, since they rushed in opening it, it will be closed to the public for even longer, ruining their reputation even more. They should have worked all these problems out with Intamin beforehand.
From Mike M
Posted June 13, 2005 at 6:18 AM
Also, the new Wooden Coaster for 2006 is rumored to be an Intamin product, so that could effect the park even more.
Despite Intamin's problems with the rocket coaster design, I still have to give them credit for designing some great other rides. Two of the three top ranked steel coasters are Intamin products, and they have come out with countless other great products. White water rapid rides, giant drop towers, impulse coasters, giant splashdown rides, observation towers...all the work of Intamin. The giant rocket coaster has hurt their reputation, and I have my own questions and doubts about the quality of a prefabricated wooden coaster built off site. Still, an Intamin product is one of the best out there, so until I ride an Intamin wooden coaster, I can't say that they are bad just yet.
It's supposed to be down for a few more weeks.
From Greg S
Posted June 18, 2005 at 1:48 AM
I think this will end the HUGE Rocket Coaster craze for aa while. Xcelerator and Stormrunner had their problems for a short time, but after a few weeks they were fine, and no more break downs. I rarely see Knotts' Xcelerator down. Also do I rarely see a rollback(actually, I've never seen a rollback on Xcelerator). I think they should build these rocket coaster within the hight of 180ft-310ft. Nothing more. Anything bigger is a disaster in money, and in safety, or so it seems.
Actually, I hope that we will see more emphasis on creative design and less on sheer height and speed. But, especially in the U.S., bigger is often equated with "better." Who cares if the food is lousy, as long as the portions are freakin' huge, right?
From B w
Posted June 18, 2005 at 8:35 AM
I live in Philadelphia and bought a season pass the first time since '02. So far I have gone to six flags great adventure 3 times this year so far, getting to ride Kingda Ka once. I am really dissapointed how Kingda Ka debuted. They barely gave any advanced warning that only 1,000 riders would get to ride with a season pass. My friend found out in the wee hours of the morning and of course I didn't find out in time. Now the ride is down for it's 10th day. Hopefully they won't rush the process because safety is most important. But looking at how Six Flags Great Adventure handled the debut of the biggest coaster in the world really makes me cautious of how safe this ride really is.
From Greg S
Posted June 18, 2005 at 10:30 AM
"Actually, I hope that we will see more emphasis on creative design and less on sheer height and speed. But, especially in the U.S., bigger is often equated with "better." Who cares if the food is lousy, as long as the portions are freakin' huge, right? "
heh, Yeah. I agree 100% with you. The only truly innovative rocket coaster is Stormrunner. But I was just giving an estimate on how tall these rides should only be. But new layots of the ride and longer ride times may be just what this ride needs. (You launch off, do your top hat, then go into a nice roller coaster portion for a minute)
Sounds fun.:D
Storm runner is more innovative, buti stillkinda feel like kingda ka is better after going on both. its a shame they cant keep it running
Once again i work at the park and the same thing that happend to Dragster happend to Kingda Ka. While launching the hydraulic cable and launch pully frayed sending shreds of metal in the air while launching the cable snapped causing the car to launch at about 70 miles per hour instead of its usual 128 the car rolled back onto the launch pad and is stuck at teh end due to the pully being destroyed it cannot be pulled back into the station and the train weighs too much to push back in. Kingda Ka is expected to re open some time in july.
Although Dragster has had many complications such as roll backs and such, Kingda ka has NEVER had a rollback with passengers on it and usually only fails the first test launch of the day when the ride isnt warmed up.
Again, if you worked at the park, you would know that the failure was not caused simply because of a cable snap. There were a number of failures that caused the the train to stop at the bottom of the tower. The train never even made it up the tower, becuase it was stopped by the brake fins in the last zone before the catch car releases. If it were as simple as a snapped cable, it would be running right now. Cedar Point has snapped at least two cables, and Dragster has not been down for more than a couple of days following a cable snap. Kingda Ka's problem is much more serious.
About.com got an interview with Great Adventure's PR manager and explains the problem.
As far as not rolling back with passengers, I wouldn't say never. I've seen a couple of people online who claim to have experienced a roll back. While you have to take their stories with a grain of salt, the coaster has only actually run for a little more than two weeks, so there hasn't been a whole lot of opportunities for it to roll back to begin with. Don't act like this coaster has a track record by saying absolutes like NEVER. KK first officially ran on May 19, and ran for two weeks (on and off at that) before it experienced a massive failure, and has been down since June 8th. To say KK has NEVER rolled back is like saying that Dragster NEVER rolled back in its first two weeks of operation. Woopdie doo!
Also, the train does not need to be "pushed" into the station. The launch track is slightly inclined, so all they have to do is release the catch car and allow the train to roll back into the station through the brake zones. Anyone who worked at a theme park, or just sat and watched a rocket coaster run would know that. There were not trains on the launch track when I was there on Sunday, so if you really worked at the park, and knew so much, you would have seen that the launch track is clear of trains.
Kingda Ka rollbacked on Media Day, with people in it. Someone at gadv.com's boards was on the train at the time of the rollback.
Urmmmmmm what happened i dont live in america so im no sure??Can someone please tell me?
It was a great decision to build this on Six Flags part but you've got to remember on something this big and new breakdowns are going to happen quite possibly breaking down frequently. Rocket coasters are fairly new, debuting in the past few years, they're gonna break down until the bugs are worked out, thats why one of the oldest coasters, the wooden coaster, break down very little because they've been around so long that we've worked all the bugs out. In a few years Intamin will have these bugs worked out and the 400+ feet coasters will work as close to as good if not better than a 75 foot wooden coaster. Keep that in mind before saying that the rocket coasters are not any good because they break down alot since they are new. I'm sure that back when Magnum XL200 at Cedar Point debuted as the tallest coaster in 1989 was plagued by breakdowns because it was the first of its kind and was a new frontier to coasters, the 200 ft barrier. But overall its going to break down just as all other coasters do.
cn some explain what happened please?
From Jon Kidd
Posted June 26, 2005 at 7:37 PM
The information is sketchy but here is a guess of what happend. First of all, I would be very surprised if it launched with the magnetic brakes up. Another thing about the rumur of the magnetic brakes being up and the train tearing them right off while trying to launch doesn't make sense. I have been to Cedar Point a few times since Top Thrill Dragster has been in operation. The train hits the stationary magnetic brakes (on the bottom of the second hill) at 120+ mph. If the magnetic brakes were up when the train tried to launch, all it would do is not make it even half way up the hill. The brakes will never rip off. What probably caused the brake down and makes sense is that a piece of covering somewhere on the launch track became loose. This caused the covering to be in the way of the train on the track. While it launched, it caught the covering and probably ripped it off and while doing so, wedged it between the bottom of the train and the track. This caused the covering piece to slice through the magnetic brakes that were down and while doing so-destroying the track and the wheels and axles of the train. An eyewitness said they saw sparks and metal flying up from the underneath the train. Another eye witness (maybe the same one) said the train stopped on the launched track and is now covered with a tarp still on the track. This sounds to me that the train is literally stuck to the track and they will not be able to tack it off easily. Also, it sounds like Intamin is going to have to make new track sections and hydrolics for the brakes, as well as the brakes. That is the best explanation of what happend. If I am way off, then I'm sorry. The longest Top Thrill was closed was a month and that was for the cable that snapped. Great Adventure said Kingda Ka will be closed for several weeks and I'm thinking probably several months if not the whole season.
Can we please stop speculating about what happened, because it has been publicised what exactly happened.
1. The liner inside the trough that the launch cable travels through came loose and created friction against the cable. The friction caused the train to not accellerate to the correct speed. The rubbing of the cable against the inside of the metal trough caused sparks and shards of metal to fly out from the bottom of the train.
2. The engine, as it is designed, attempted to compensate by applying more force to the cable to attain the 128 MPH launch speed.
3. The brake fins that raise up into the braking possition go up on a timing patern, independant of the launching mechanism. The fins are mounted in steel supports that are connected to actuators that raise and lower the fins into the desired position. There are four braking zones, and each zone has about 24 individual brake fins. The fins actually caught up to the launching train as the timing pattern of the raising fins was faster than the accellerating train.
4. The magnetic brakes began to slow the train in the launch area, and the engine tried to compensate even more, and dragged the train through the brake zones.
5. The catch car released, but the train was still in the brake zone and came to a complete stop at the bottom of the hill.
Damage occurred to the launch cable (frayed and needs to be replaced), engine (minor routine damage to seals), and brake fins (many need to be replaced). The brake fins in the launch section are mounted in such a way to keep fast moving trains from moving backwards into the station, but a fast moving train moving forwards caused an unexpected stress on a number of fins that bent them forward. Not all of the fins need to be replaced, but there are more damaged fins than Six Flags had replacements, and have to be special ordered from Intamin.
Please, let's stop "guessing" at what happened, and just read the numerous accounts that have been published.
From Jon Kidd
Posted June 28, 2005 at 10:00 AM
I may have been wrong on exactly waht happend but the brake fins are on hydraulics that move the fins down a few seconds before launch and move up right after it ascends the hill. They move back up ofcourse to stop the train if it falls back down. The fins are never up when launching and has nothing to do with the directing of the magnets. They're not in the way at all at launching but obviously what happend, they got caught even though they were in the down position. The brake fins are stationary at the end of the camel hump.
In related news, Top Thrill Dragster riders got a 15 minute ride when the train came to a perfect stop on top of the hill. Sounds like fun. Maintenance guys rode the lift to the top and gave the train a little push to help them down.
If I'm not mistaken, the trough piece is what will keep the ride closed for a while. The part has to be custom machined.
every morning, park employees get a new letter and every morning it says that the Ka will be closed for sevral more weeks while custom parts are being built so dont expect to ride it until september.
Does Anyone Know When this ride is opening. Or a guess. Late july or early august i dunno who know
Strange I think its Sixflags because nothing like this happened at Cedar Point
Also im sure well see another Rocket Coaster like this somewhere most likely a clone at another sixflags considering sixflags clones almost evrything its like going to the same park if you go to a different park.
the clones are better
WOW! My husband and I just went to Cedar Point over the last few days and were blown away by this crazy Top Thrill Dragster. Just thought I'd share this story...we were in line, about five minutes from our turn, and as we watched from the platform, the train did not make it over the hill. Instead, it came hurtling backwards as we watched in horror. You could practically hear the entire park gasp, as nobody knew what to expect. I certainly didn't know that a brake system would prevent it from crashing into the train in the launch area, and apparently most of the riders on the train in the launch area didn't know either. I talked to a girl afterwards who was waiting in that train and she said she was "sure it was all over." The riders had the option to "go again" or get off, and they all chose to stay on. It was a thrill, alone, to watch that happen, and though nobody was hurt, it's simply not supposed to do that...and there's nothing right when it malfunctions like that!
On another note, I appreciate hearing the story about the 15 minute ride. Though this is another horrible malfunctioning scenario, it confirms the answer to my question that I wondered aloud when we were in line---"Do you think it would be possible to 'get stuck' at the top?" Man...!
I'm sure those who aren'y really big roller coaster fans would be completely freaked out by a rollback on a rocket coaster. However, as one who has experienced a rollback on Top Thrill Dragster, it is an incredible experience. Not only do you get the sensation of utter peril, but when you've been backed into the launch possition, you can go again. What a great perk, especially when you've waited a couple of hour to ride once, you end up getting two for the price of one.
I got season passes this season so I could go on kk, but since it has broken down, and possibly might not be open until the end of the season,I might go to Cedar Point. It would be horrible if the Top Thrill Dragster broke too.
Do they normally rollback?
No, it is a rarity, from what I've heard. They had problems with the Dragster last year, but it hasn't happened much this year. It's not supposed to happen, but they have back-up brake systems in case it does. However, the Dragster was temporarily shut down a few times during the three days we were there, which were just this past week.
It really is a shame that during the height of their finite summer season, their new record-breaking roller coaster has been closed for close to one month. Having followed the Cedar Point TTD drama fairly closely, I opted NOT to purchase a season's pass to my "home park" of SFGAd. Hopefully Kinga Ka will be back in operation soon as I'm sure Six Flags didn't spend all those millions just to leave a bad taste in the mouths of their summer guests.
Yeah,I hope so.
Now,they realize it!It means that human and technology have limitations.They will be never make something perfect...and if Top Thrill Dragster and KingdaKa finally die...
It means the highest roller coaster is still Superman and The fastest is Dodonpa.Besides,Superman is far safer than the 'rocket'.
Superman's reliability has been even worse than Dragster. Not to mention its power drain is bleeding money out of Magic Mountain.
I dont consider Superman the Escape a coaster. And Dragster is doing much better from what ive heard Dragster is way more reliable then Kingda ka ever was.
Then,Intamin should know who build Dodonpa in Fuji-Q Highland in Japan!It's even a super-rocket coaster!Imagine this!You are rocketing 0-108 mph just in 1.8 second.Now,tell me how they do it and the coaster seems doing well.
The Coaster Should Be Fixed By the end of second week of jluy. then test for al least 2 1/2 weeks. get passed. proboly opening in late july/really early august
From Luke Hyde
Posted July 16, 2005 at 10:44 PM
well insider the ride i great they will get it up and running in no time a shout out to michael starr this ride is awsome and trust me dont go on it 20 times in a row even if you bribe them to let you
SIX FLAGS REALLY NEEDS TO UPDATE ON THEIR SITE. AT LEAST SAY YOUR WORKING ON THE DAMN RIDE. WE ARE WORKING DIGLIATANY TO BRING THE DAMN RIDE BACK. SEVERAL WEEKS. IT HAS BEEN A GOD DAMN MONTH. FIX IT GET MEN. THIS IS THE WHOLE REASON WHY I GOT A SEASON PASS. TO RIDE THIS RIDE NON STOP. PUT SOMETHING UP. SIX FLAGS. THEY THINK AVOIDING THE PROBLEM WILL MAKE PEOPLE FORGET. BUT NOONE WILL;
yeah u need to chill just go to Cedar Point
XC has just said Kingda Ka may not open at all this year.
I Think That is B.S. The guy who even wrote it said sorry i was wrong. Get ur fact straight.
I also read Xtreme Coaster. The site says that Kingda Ka is likely closed for the year, and that the breakdown is NOT the fault of Intamin, but rather Six Flags maintenance making a bad decision when testing. Could it be any worse?
And againg the guy that worte got it form another source. he even replyed to his own thing saying. i doubt any of this is true. i belive. how is it six flags fault all they got to do is push a button. it like you get anew car step on the gas and it wheels fall off. whose fault is it. who ever worte that stuff it is all false on xc
Push a button? You think that all park workers have to do is push a button? That may or may not be true when they are sending riders off, but what about when they power the ride up in the morning? What about general maintenance that has to be done every morning?... like checking the cooling systems, oil pressure, electronic systems, computer systems...etc etc. This isn't an old school wood coaster with a hand brake. It's a highly complicated, computer controlled piece of machinery that obviously requires a lot of attention.
While it remains to be seen if the story is indeed true, the fact remains that Kingda Ka is still sitting there doing nothing, and Six Flags reputation for letting their broken rides sit there and rot only reinforces the possibility of this story for me. Quite simply, I would not be surprised at all if that is what really happened.
I'm not really sure what to think, 6 flags won't update there site, and everyone is saying differn't things.
I think it will have to open up this season though. And has anypne noticed that they have taken Kingda Ka off of the comercals?
It Could Be Six flags. but it also could've been the hot weather it got 100 that day in great adventure which might ve messed up the system but i still think it is intaniam falut hey someone make another disscussion for this or use mine which i can't even find.
This discussion has been archived, and is not accepting additional responses.
