The park today unveiled details of its much-anticipated new roller coaster, Firehawk, which will debut Memorial Day weekend.
The coaster may be familiar to some. The 3,340-foot-long steel monster was formerly known as X-Flight and was located at Geauga Lake amusement park near Cleveland. Relocated, renamed and repainted from neon green to a striking red and yellow, it will be the first "flying" coaster at Kings Island and the first big investment in the park since it was bought by Cedar Fair Inc. last yearis the first major thrill ride here in years," said Maureen Kaiser, park spokeswoman. "We're very excited. It will be a great addition to the park."
As its genre implies, the coaster gives the sensation of flying. Riders will become "pilots" heading off to a top-secret airborne mission. Their seats recline as they are whisked off backward along the twisty, loopy track. Then, in a corkscrew move, the train flips over so riders are suddenly facing the ground at 51 miles per hour with nothing between them and the sometimes 115-foot drop but air and their harness.
Park goers are thrilled.
"Fans of the park have been lobbying for a big steel coaster for quite some time," said Ryan Suhr, 24, of Edgewood.
Suhr is media director of the park's fan web site, pkicentral.com. He's ridden X-flight and has been closely tracking rumors that it was coming to Mason. Those rumors heated up last week after he posted photos of the chunks of green metal track unloaded in Kings Island's parking lot.
Firehawk will be the perfect addition, he said.
"There is no sensation like the flying sensation," he said.
Firehawk will be the first new roller coaster at Kings Island since the Italian Job Stunt Track opened in 2005, and the first major thrill ride since the Son of Beast opened in 2000. It will be comparable in magnitude to what is considered the park's other major steel coaster, the Vortex, which opened in 1987.
Firehawk will perch on 5.5 newly-cleared acres behind Flight of Fear in Coney Mall, expanding the park to 369 acres. The Cincinnati-based Fenton Rigging Co. expects to being reconstructing the coaster mid-month.
The process of moving a roller coaster is a feat in itself. X-Flight was disassembled last fall into more than 300 massive pieces which are being shipped, bit by bit, by more than 200 flatbed trucks to Kings Island. About 100 or more hunks of the green skeleton-like track are already in Kings Island's parking lot.
Geauga Lake, also a Cedar Fair property, closed X-Flight at the end of the 2006 season so it could be moved to Kings Island. Cedar Fair decided to bring in a new ride to balance the expanded selection of family-friendly offerings at its new acquisition with something new for the thrill-seekers.
The company invested $10 million to relocate the coaster and make other improvements for the 2007 season including a new line of shows. The season starts April 21.
Last year 319,000 people rode X-Flight. It was one of the most popular rides at Geauga Lake, which draws about 750,000 people a year, said Bryan Edwards, park spokesman. That number will likely rise when the coaster re-opens as Firehawk because Kings Island is a much larger park, attracting around 3 million people a year.
Suhr said expects Firehawk to become a fan favorite - at least in the steel coaster family.
"For most people, the Beast is always going to be the best ride," he said, referring to the 1979 giant wooden coaster that is a regular on industry top-10 coaster lists. "But this will certainly offer one more unique thing."
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