California's Great America Planning for the Addition of a 240 Foot Tall Ride

According to a filing with the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, California's Great America is planning on building a 240 foot tall ride for what looks like a 2019 debut.

The document, which is needed due to the park's proximity to an airport, is pretty clear and notes that the height waiver is needed because "a 240-foot tall ride structure would be proposed to be built in the theme park."  The filing also notes that work on the project will extend from 9/2/2018 through 4/6/2019.  Naturally, that leads me to believe this will be a major project for the park's 2019 season.

© Google Maps

Naturally the ride structure that is mentioned reaches its highest point of 240 feet above the ground, and the the coordinates for that spot are given.  Plugging them into Google Maps shows that the tallest part of whatever the ride is will be right over the Peanuts Pirates ride, marked on the map above.

If you recall the original expansion plans that the park presented to win their rezoning did include a 200 foot plus tall hyper coaster given as an example of what they would want to build.  But, the same document also shows a super tall version of a StarFlyer, so it's hard to know what might be coming.  It does seem a bit soon to build a massive coaster right after RailBlazer, but the park is prepped for some massive expansion similar to what we've seen Carowinds go through, so it's not out of the question.

It's an exciting hint at the park's future, but before getting onto 2019 the park has 2018 to look forward to, which will see the opening of RailBlazer!