Holiday World Kicks Thunderbird Work into High Gear

Holiday World's latest roller coaster, Thunderbird, is now reaching for the sky!  The park has started some serious vertical construction on the ride - which will be the first launched wing coaster in the Nation when it opens in 2015.  With no traditional lift hill to put into place, the theme park quickly laid down the first launch track, and is now working on the tallest part of the coaster, the Immelmann.

© Holiday World

The park has shared some photos of the ride on their official blog, one of which can be seen here.  The trains, each featuring five rows each with four seats, will launch down the track above at 60 miles per hour and the immediately head up and invert 140 feet above the ground.  A twist to complete the Immelmann will have the trains pointing 90 degrees from the launch, on the bit of track in place on the left of the above photo.

The rest of Thunderbird's 3,035 foot layout will take place in the woods, with trains encountering a vertical loop, horseshoe element, zero-g roll and a full inline twist.  The track will hug the ground at several points during the ride, interacting with themed elements to create some exciting close encounters.

See more photos of Thunderbird's latest construction here, and read more about the $22 million ride at this link.